Dragon Quest Z: Rebirth
by ShadowMajin
Summary: AU. Sequel to Dragon Quest Z. There's something to be said about the life of a vagabond. Clean air, blue skies, a multitude of bounty hunters after Gohan's life for reasons unknown to him. It's the simple things in life.
1. The Sign at the Crossroad

Hey folks, ShadowMajin here. It's been quite a while since I ran around the DBZ section, mostly because of my current project. That one doesn't seem to have an end in sight lol.

So here's a story: about five years ago, several reviews came in on Dragon Quest Z, each asking for a sequel. Up until then, I didn't really have any thought as to a sequel. But after those reviews, I spoke to my favorite gal, Ms. Videl Son, and the both of us thought, "Why not?" That day we hammered out a plot with gusto, much like we had for the original DQZ. I even started writing on it right then and there.

And then I got distracted.

Kinda explains the five years, doesn't it?

But here it is, ready for your reading enjoyment. MVS and I hope you enjoy the return to the Dragon Quest Z world.

* * *

The sound of a crow cawing echoed throughout the dense forest. The sun was high in the sky, sending out heat that seemed to beat down on anyone that felt it. A brown, dirt path carved its way through the brown tree bark and green leaves until it reached a fork. At the intersection stood a tall, wooden post with boards nailed into it. The ends of the boards had been whittled down to form arrow points, dark paint forming letters that indicated what lay in each of the arrows' directions.

Gohan stood in front of this sign with squinted eyes. According to the sign, Kame City was to his left and to his right was Nappa Valley. The road in which he came indicated some village called Seven Village lay in that direction, though the young man hadn't really noticed. Such was the life of a vagabond.

"Which way, which way?" he muttered to himself as he considered his options. Although he would had preferred staying in a shaded spot at the moment—especially with this heat—Gohan knew better. He had to keep moving, or some unsavory people he had met in the last year, especially in the last three weeks, would catch up with him and he did not want that to happen.

Lifting up one of his arms, Gohan rubbed his bare forearm over his forehead, wiping away sweat. The sleeves of his white shirt had been rolled up to his elbows to help make his day a little bit bearable. Glancing to his right, he stared in that direction for a moment before looking to his left and doing the same thing. Both paths looked the same from the trees and bushes to the dirt road. So deciding on looks was out…

A rustling sound caught the young man's ears, causing him to stiffen. The crow was cawing again, but Gohan barely took note. Someone was close by, he could feel it. The hair on the back of his neck was sticking up, a clear sign that that someone had less than favorable intentions.

Immediately, Gohan took off down the left path, walking as fast as possible. He didn't want to alert whoever was nearby to him knowing they were there. The more they thought he was off guard, the more likely they would make a mistake in trying to capture him.

Nervously, the young man reached up and gripped the hem of his black vest. Adjusting it on his frame, he dropped his arms to his sides, doing whatever it took not to look back. He needed to play this cool, smart, and above all not make any mistakes.

The sound of a snapping twig caused Gohan to freeze in his tracks, his eyes wide as he frantically searched around for the source. That was when he felt something tighten around his ankles and jerk his wool-covered legs together. The next thing he knew, the young man's feet were jerked into the air, causing him to fall onto his back on the ground roughly before being dragged into the air. When everything stopped, Gohan found himself hanging upside-down, his arms dangling over his head uselessly.

 _Well, so much for not making mistakes._

Doing his best to ignore the blood rushing into his head, not to mention the dizzying sight of the upturned world, Gohan tilted his head towards his chest, finding the bottom of his vest bundling towards his chest. His shirt was tucked into his brown pants and held with a belt, so at least his stomach wasn't showing. Further up, he caught sight of a rope descending from the greenery of a tree and wrapped around his boots.

It was the simplest of trap designs ever conceived and he had fallen right for it.

Annoyed, Gohan let his head fall back down as he tried to fight his annoyed feelings. After all this time running around the countryside, it was a trap that only an idiot would have fallen for that caught him. Guess that made him the idiot then. _Alright, don't get frustrated. This is just an inconvenience, nothing more._

A bush to his left back rustling then and shortly later a man emerged from it, leaves sticking out of his clothes and hair. Looking to him, Gohan couldn't help the groan that escaped his lips. _Not_ this _guy again…_

"I finally caught you," the man declared haughtily, pointing a finger right at Gohan. "You gave me a good chase there, but you should have known that no arch enemy can defeat a hero."

Not this again; please, not this again. Gohan could feel a vein pulsing on his forehead as the blond man began his prepared speech once more. And yes, he had heard this before. "You have fallen far, my former sidekick. We had done great things together, fought the forces of evil, saved damsels in distress, and all kinds of other hero-y things. But then you were seduced by the dark side and became my Arch Enemy. As the hero, I cannot allow you to commit more evilly things and in order to get my sidekick back, I will do everything ness…nesses…needed."

Gohan began ignoring the blond at that moment. This was the fifth time he had heard this speech, weird half-words and all. He had given up listening to him around the third time and just focused on getting out of whatever hair-brained trap the man had set up. Oddly enough, those were the only traps that seemed to catch the dark-haired youth, not something he was proud to admit. And when the one person that could actually catch you was a guy that blabbered about heroes and arch enemies and sidekicks, that wasn't something you went about sharing.

Sighing, Gohan then took in a deep breath and swung his torso up. Grabbing his legs, he held on tightly to them before using them to steady his effort to reach the rope around his feet. Bending his knees to help, the young man managed to grasp the toes of his boots before getting a hold of the rope above them with his left hand. With his right, he reached towards a small handle protruding from his boot. Grabbing it, he pulled it towards him and revealed a small dagger. Due to some of his recent encounters, he had taken up the habit of keeping one there in case of emergency.

Letting out a grunt, Gohan directed his attention back to the blond guy to make sure he was still in mid-speech. "…is with a heavy heart that I have to do this to my old sidekick, but bad guys have to be punished." Yep, he was still talking. Looking back to the rope, the dark-haired man tightened his grip and raised the dagger to it, sawing the blade into it right beneath his hand.

It took a minute, but eventually he succeeded in his endeavor, despite the growing strain in his stomach from his uncomfortable position. Once his feet dropped towards the ground, his hand still holding onto the rope, Gohan let out a groan of relief. Keeping his stomach muscles locked had been quite tiring after all. Dangling from the cut rope, he looked down to the ground and judged whether he needed to try to reach the tree and climb down, or to simply let go and not fear about breaking a leg.

He chose to let go.

Landing on his feet, he instantly crouched down in response to his fall. Cutting the rope that was still wrapped around his feet, he made short work of it in seconds and tossed it away. Sheathing his dagger back in its sheath, Gohan looked back to the blond man and found him with his back turned for some odd reason, still talking.

"…do not take it personally, Former Sidekick. You know as well as I that you had this coming and it is only naturally that the hero beats up the bad guy. You would do the same thing if you had managed to become a hero yourself and I had become the villain, though the chances of that happening are one and a half to one against it."

Rolling his eyes, Gohan began leisurely walking away. By the time the guy figured out he was going, the dark-haired youth would be a league or two away. That's how it had happened every time they had met, from the hole covered in palm tree leaves three months ago, to the wooden cage that had been sloppily put together with strange silver bonds a week ago, to a sign that said FREEE FUUD. The young man was still trying to figure out what fuud was.

"Hey! Where did you go Arch Enemy?"

Gohan's eyes widened as he jerked his head around. The blond-haired man was looking around with exaggerated motions before he spotted him. The dark-haired youth immediately took off running down the road, trying to put as much distance between him and the idiot behind him. Unfortunately, the blond had instantly given chase, fully intent on running him down. "Oh no, you don't! You won't escape me this time, Arch Enemy! Your time has come!"

Okay, this hadn't happened before. As he ran, Gohan glanced over his shoulder behind him and found the blond keeping pace with him. Oh great, this guy was in shape too. Though the same could be said about Gohan, he really didn't want to be chased all the way to whatever city he was heading towards. He needed to do something and do it quick.

Unfortunately, his brain decided to be difficult at that moment. Why wouldn't it give him a good idea? Now would have been a good time for one after all. About the only thing that was coming to mind was giving him a distraction, but there wasn't anything to use as one. This guy didn't exactly seem like the kind of person that was fascinated by birds and plants.

Going for broke, Gohan came to a stop and turned around. "What's that!" he cried out as he pointed towards his pursuer. "Is it a beautiful princess in need of rescuing?"

Immediately, the blond man skidded to a stop and swung around to look behind him. "Where?!" he exclaimed as he looked about frantically. "Where's the hot princess? Where? I know she wants a piece of the Sharpenator!"

Blinking his eyes, Gohan stared at the guy, wondering if he was really that foolish. His better senses kicked in a moment later and he dove behind a tree, doing his best to hide behind it. He didn't bother sneaking a peek at the Sharpenator guy since he could still hear him.

"Come out, Princess, where ever you are! Hey, you there? Hello? Huh, I guess she went back to my place to wait for me," the man said as he scratched his head. "Yeah, that's it! Now, all I have to do is catch Arch Enemy and I can— _hey!_ Where did Arch Enemy go? Drat! He escaped again! Oh no, he doesn't, not this time!"

Gohan just continued to listen as he heard the blond man run off further down the road. Waiting for a few moments, he finally stepped back onto the dirt path and looked down it, seeing only a small dust cloud floating higher into the air. Well, at least that took care of him.

Well, he should head the other way now that he finally got rid of that Sharpen…what ever his name was. By the time that guy realized Gohan wasn't that way, he'd most likely be in the next kingdom over. At least that's what he thought—he wasn't too good with geography.

That was when an exploding pain erupted on the back of his head, causing stars to flash before his eyes. Letting out a cry, he fell to the ground where he was mercifully taken into darkness.

* * *

I know, it seems pretty short, doesn't it? Fear not, there's plenty of story to go, all of it much longer than this.

Much like the previous story, there's fanart for this one lol. Gohan's outfit here can be found on megaminoeien's DeviantArt page, called _D2Z Casual Sketch_. She is the fashion designer for this story lol.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved.


	2. Captured by Videl

Okay, so maybe I fibbed about the length of this one being longer. I can guarantee the next chapter will be longer; I know because I checked to be sure. Anyways, please be patient as we'll be diving into the meat of the story very soon.

* * *

Gohan wasn't sure how long he had been out, but when he came to he found his back was being dragged along a bumpy, gravelly road. The tiny, brown rocks were digging into his shirt and back, causing some noticeable discomfort.

With a groan he tried to move his arms, quickly finding out he couldn't. Dazedly, he looked down his body and found several coils of rope were wrapped around his torso, pinning his arms to his side. A couple of jerks told him he wasn't going to be muscling his way out of them anytime soon.

 _Drat, captured again…_

Dropping his head back, Gohan soon wish he hadn't as the back of his skull came into contact with a rather hard stone that he had previously been dragged over. That instantly sent a rather painful reminder that a lump was growing there and it was quite tender. Wincing from the jolt of pain, he murmured an "Ow," as he rode through it.

It had been a long time coming he supposed. His luck wasn't going to hold up forever; he had even lost count of the number of attempts people had made at capturing him. Though he was curious as to who had finally succeeded.

Tilting his head up again, Gohan looked further down his body, finding his legs were also restrained and held up off the ground. Emerging from his feet was a rope, which lead to a small, thin man further ahead, the rope going over their shoulder. Ah, so that's why he was being dragged.

Staring, Gohan noted the familiarity of the light blue shirt the man wore. A frown appeared on the young man's face then. It he wasn't mistaken, the man's frame was smaller than he had thought, maybe one that belonged more to a boy than a full-grown man.

He also had short black hair, hair that looked as if it was in need of a proper hair cut. Gohan wasn't one for style or anything like that, but even he could spot when someone simply cut their hair with a convenient sword or knife. The entire backside of the boy's head was jagged and had uneven hairs.

And unfortunately, Gohan knew the person that kept their hair that way.

"Oh no, you again?"

The boy grunted as the looked over their shoulder, hardened blue eyes looking at him. "You were expecting someone else?" he replied dryly.

Gohan just groaned at his luck. Of all the people that were after him, this guy was the worst. Whereas that blond guy was the most persistent, this boy was easily the most dangerous. For the last month, the guy had hounded him like a devil, always a step behind him and if Gohan miraculously managed to lose him, he would be back on his tail within days. In fact, he was the sole reason why the dark-haired youth was in this part of the world; and also the reason why he was so paranoid of his surroundings.

It also didn't help Gohan that the guy was possessive to a crazy degree. When the young man had said he had people after him, he meant a whole boatload of them. While some of them had given up after awhile, the more experienced and deadly of them kept on the hunt. A few times they had managed to capture Gohan, only to have this crazy boy come out of nowhere and rain hell on them. Every person there had been ceremoniously beaten black and blue and probably left to die. Gohan wasn't too sure because he would manage to get his sorry behind out of there before the fighting ended.

And since he kept running into this guy, Gohan assumed he was winning.

Though he may not have stayed behind to witness the fights, the young man had seen his most ardent pursuer use some inhuman strength and anger to fight. There were even a couple times he had used magic and that was what frightened Gohan the most. He had no magical ability whatsoever and there was no telling what this guy could do to him if he wanted.

"Why? Why are you still after me, Videl?" Gohan whined as he began struggling against his bonds. "I haven't done anything to you."

Videl came to a stop and turned around to glare at him. "Do me a favor: shut up. I'm taking you where you need to go and that's final. And don't make me break your legs. I'm tired of having to chase you all over these bloody kingdoms."

"You know, you could always not chase me," Gohan suggested.

The glare intensified. "And leave you to the others? I don't think so." Videl then turned around and once more began dragging him down the road.

"Hey, I managed to get away from all those others ones before, I can do it again."

"Sharpner doesn't count and you know it."

Gohan sighed. It had been worth a shot. Unfortunately, Videl was just too determined to take him in. Considering his situation now, he highly doubted he would be able to get out of this one. His pursuer had gone overboard with his restraints this time and as much as Gohan didn't want to admit it, Videl was right about Sharpner. He wasn't the most perilous obstacle to overcome.

Still, it was a good run while it lasted.

* * *

Nightfall had fallen, which prompted Videl to drag Gohan off-road until they found a small little meadow. With gentleness he hadn't been aware his capturer processed, the boy placed him against a tree, making sure he was comfortable before going off to gather enough wood for a fire. After tearing up some ground near Gohan and creating a large patch of dirt, Videl piled wood together and murmured something. Flames quickly erupted a moment later and a nice, warm fire was burning.

Considering Gohan hadn't seen any flint and steel, or any other normal fire-producing technique, he could only assume magic had been involved. Though he was grateful for the fire, it still made him uneasy to be around a magic-user. Something about it just unsettled him for some reason. He wasn't much of a prude, but he found things that could alter the natural order of things to be unsettling. Impossible things that were made possible with the smallest of efforts shouldn't exist like that.

The two of them then sat in silence for awhile. The only sounds being made belonged to the crickets and the crackling of the fire. And while he felt hungry, Gohan really didn't feel like asking Videl for anything. Who knows what he would do if asked?

"So tell me," Videl suddenly said, startling the young man. The boy's voice was a bit on the high side, but then that was always the way his voice was. It seemed puberty hadn't gotten around to deepening his voice just yet. "What are you doing out here?"

Gohan stared at the boy. "Umm, living?"

Videl gave him a look. "I mean, what are you doing in this exact place. Out of every territory you could be in, you're in the most dangerous one."

Gohan leaned his head back against the tree, looking towards the night sky. It was filled with twinkling stars, making for a very beautiful sight. "I don't think you'd understand."

"Try me."

"I'm looking for someone."

"Who?"

For a moment, the young man considered how much he should tell Videl. This was a bit personal for him, but since he wasn't exactly about to escape anytime soon, annoying his capturer wasn't the best way to go about receiving decent treatment. "A woman."

The boy seemed to stiffen at that. "A…woman?"

Gohan looked to Videl and nodded his head. "Yeah. I…I don't really remember much, but I have this image in my head. There's this woman looking at me. She's…beautiful. The most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And she's looking at me full of worry. It's like she really cares about me, you know? And then for some reason she leaves. I…I don't know why she did, but she said she'd come back." He shrugged his shoulders then. "When she didn't come back, I decided to go find her."

Videl raised an eyebrow at that. "And you decided to look for this…woman…in Ribbon Country?"

"I didn't start out here—just kinda wandered over here. But there's been other things too." Gohan frowned a bit. Why was he sharing this with this boy? It wasn't like he cared or anything. Perhaps the dark-haired youth just wanted to tell someone his story before he was disposed of. That was definitely a possibility.

"I guess you could say I've been retracing my footsteps," he continued.

Videl seemed taken back by that. "Retracing? What for?"

"I told you I don't remember much, right? I mean that very literally. I can't remember a thing before a year ago. I don't know why. So while I've been looking for the woman, I've been hoping to come across something…something familiar. I want to see if I can remember something."

A sigh left Gohan's lips then. "I don't think I've ever told someone that."

Videl was looking at him almost sympathetically, why Gohan had no clue. "But that's enough about me. You don't want to hear about this."

"No, no, I don't mind," the boy replied quickly.

Though a bit surprising, the young man stared at his captor for a moment before asking, "Would you mind answering a question for me?"

"Sure."

"What's a strapping young lad like you following a guy like me around?"

Videl's sympathetic look fell, immediately being replaced by an enraged one. "Shut up and go to sleep!" he shouted before laying on the ground in a huff, his back to Gohan as his arms crossed over his chest.

Gohan stared bewilderingly. That…that had been unexpected. Oh well, maybe it was time to go to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be filled with more dragging anyways. Nestling into the tree to get comfortable, he was still for only a moment when a new problem suddenly reared its head. Looking to his pants, he stared at it for a moment before looking to Videl. "Umm, Videl?"

"What?" he snapped.

"I…umm, I have to…pee…"

Videl was still for a moment before shifting over to look at Gohan. "Then go take care of it. What do I look like, your mother?"

In response, Gohan began flopping his hands all over, showing his lack of mobility. "Kinda hard to do that when my hands can't even reach my waistline."

The boy was quiet for a moment before he sighed and pushed himself off the ground. Walking around the fire as his belt jingled from the movement, a dagger sheath bouncing against his leg, Videl reached Gohan and knelt down next to him and began undoing his belt.

Gohan immediately jerked back, finding his movement halted by the tree behind him. "Wh-what are you doing?"

Videl gave him a look. "I'm helping you, what does it look like?"

"B-but you'll see my…my…"

Videl rolled his eyes. "It's not like I haven't seen it before."

Gohan blinked his eyes as this information sunk into his brain. There was only one conclusion he could come up with. "You…you've watched me pee before?"

Videl's face plowed into Gohan's chest as he fell forward, his hands stopping their motions. It was awkward for Gohan considering he never had a guy do that to him before. It was a moment before the boy backed off, looking quite put out. "You know what, you figure it out."

Gohan watched the boy walk back to his place on the other side of the fire and lay down again. Glancing down to his undone belt, he faintly wondered how he was going to do his business with his pants still on. Still though, he could hold it if necessary. With a quick look to his right hand and the gleaming blade of a dagger in his grasp, he knew he could hold on for as long as it took.

He honestly hadn't expected Videl to get as close as he did, but that had given Gohan the perfect opportunity to draw the knife out of its sheath and keep it out of sight until the boy had left. It was a little trick the dark-haired youth had picked up over the last year and it had been quite handy at times.

That Sharpner guy could attest to that.

Still, now wasn't the time to start getting himself free. Videl wasn't asleep and any attempt to escape was slim as long as the boy was awake. So Gohan waited patiently until the fire began to die down. By that time, his captor's chest was rising and falling slowly—a clear indication he was asleep.

Making his move, Gohan maneuvered the dagger in his hand and began cutting into his bindings. It took a long while as he assaulted the rope one coil at a time, but his work bore fruit when he removed his restraints. It took less time for him to get the rope around his legs off too. By the time the fire was nothing more but smoldering ashes, the young man was on his feet and tossing the dagger aside.

Stretching out his stiff muscles, Gohan looked to Videl, finding he was still asleep. Then as quietly as he could, he snuck away into the forest, trying to put as much distance between him and the boy. He'd reach a road sooner or later, but that was a secondary concern.

 _So long, Videl._

* * *

To Zerolink100: Hopefully this story lives up to expectations lol. Unfortunately, there won't be the flashback scenes like the first story. There were plans for it, but unfortunately they fell through. That isn't to say there won't be flashbacks at some point, but the ones providing background will be absent.

To Guest (1): Caught that little reference, huh? Someone's been reading the first story quite a bit lol.

To Guest (2): I wonder what you'll say about the next one lol.

Videl's outfit can be found on megaminoeien's DeviantArt page, called _D2Z Bishie sketch_. There are links to other examples of her choice in clothes, though there is one piece I want to make specific mention. _D2Z Manhandled_ shows the scene with Videl dragging Gohan behind him. I took a different direction with it and I prefer my version. It's still a great piece though.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	3. Arrested Development

Gohan found himself walking on a road made of stones and rocks, though he wasn't exactly too thrilled about it. Due to recent events, he had tended to avoid cities, preferring the quiet countryside to hustle-and-bustle that was city life.

Yet, he didn't have much choice in the matter. With Sharpner and Videl catching up to him one after the other, they were expecting him to stick to small villages now. Heading for a more populated place, while dangerous, would be the last place either one of them would expect him to be.

After taking care of his bodily business following his escape from Videl, it had taken Gohan over a day to reach this place. Forest had given way to hills and barren farmland and ultimately the mountains. He hadn't entered the range yet, but it wasn't like he needed to. Anyone that was on his tail he would lose in the city hopefully. Gerova was situated at the base of a mountain, specifically in front of a mountain pass. Once he entered the city, he would make his way towards the pass before slipping off to another side of the city. Yep, the young man had a plan and he was willing—if not desperate—to make it work.

Passing through the city gates, Gohan lifted the hood of his dark cloak over his head. He had…borrowed it from a nearby farmhouse. Considering it was hanging from a line of twine that had been tied between two trees, the young man assumed the owner didn't really care about it. A few damp spots on the cloak supported that assumption. Of course, he had to dry it off a bit before he could wear it, but that was the price for taking someone's unwanted stuff.

Unconsciously, the young man hunched over, keeping his head low. He was trying to maintain a low profile and no one ever looked at a person that was meek. The people around him sure as heck didn't, the same with the guards.

As he walked on the cobblestone street, Gohan peeked at the buildings around him. They were made of some strange stone, very grey, yet smooth. The building fronts were perfect squares and placed right next to their neighbor in sets of five, creating very few alleyways. Flagpoles extended from the buildings, a black flag with a red ribbon etched into it billowing in the wind. All in all, the one word Gohan could describe this place was uniform.

There were taller, wooden buildings—ones that seemed more welcoming than these stone-made buildings—in the distance, most likely belonging to the more wealthy citizenry. The young man would have to pass by these buildings eventually, but he would make sure to avoid the castle that was situated towards the foot of the mountain. It was close to the mountain pass he was heading for, but there were assuredly plenty of buildings he could keep between him and the castle.

Edging his way to the side of the street, Gohan was looking for a side street he could get on when he saw it. On the wall of the building was a piece of paper nailed to its surface. Large, bold print declared **WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE.** Beneath the print was a picture of a face, one that Gohan instantly recognize as his own and under that was a very large number.

Okay, perhaps running into the city was a bad idea.

Looking to either side of him, just to make sure he wasn't being watched, Gohan reached up and ripped the wanted poster off the wall, fully intent on ripping it into a hundred pieces. Though he wasn't one for vandalism, this was a special occasion that he could make an exception for.

That was when shouts rang out further down the street, causing Gohan to look away from the notice and towards the commotion. A young, impoverished-looking young man was running down the street, dodging around people who seemed to stare at him dumbfounded. There was something in his arms, but the dark-haired youth wasn't able to make out what it was.

Chasing the poor guy were several guards; each was wearing leather armor with the ribbon emblem from the flags on them. A couple had swords drawn and were shouting for the man to stop. Unlike the thief, the guards weren't dodging the bystanders as much as they were running over or through them.

Turning his body to follow the action, Gohan slowly tucked the wanted poster into a pocket. It wouldn't do for him to be caught while another crime was occurring. Once the thief and guards had passed him as they headed towards the city gate, Gohan began putting distance between him and the spectacle. Passing through an intersection and reaching a new set of buildings, a familiar murmur reached the young man's ears. Searching for the source of it, he quickened his pace until he reached a building front almost near another intersection.

Finding a wide open doorway, the dark-haired youth peeked through it and found it to be some sort of tavern. Immediately, Gohan entered it, finding it to be quite crowded. Despite the stone face of the building, the inside of it was composed entirely of wood, from the walls to the ceiling to the floor. Most of the room was filled with wooden tables and chairs, all of them occupied with men who either sat in the chairs or stood around the tables. To the right was a bar that stretched from one wall to the one opposite, bar stools situated in front of it, many of them empty. On the leftmost wall were several booths, all of them filled with people. Worming his way to the bar, Gohan sat down on an empty stool next to a rather bulky-looking man with white hair.

As Gohan stared at a very large section of liquor bottles that lined the wall, a bald man in an apron soon approached him, a surly look on his face. "What do ya want?" he grunted irritably.

"Water," the young man quickly said. Although he didn't really want to get anything, he really didn't want to be thrown in the street just yet. The bald man merely grunted again and went to get the drink.

"Water?" a heavily-accented voice spoke up then, startling the dark-haired youth. Looking to his right, Gohan found the white-haired man staring at him incredulously. "You enter place like this and order water?" he demanded incredulously.

"Umm, I…I just needed a quick drink is all," Gohan stammered. "It's…uhh…too early for me."

"Nonsense! It never too early to drink!" Oh great, this guy was an alcoholic. Just what he needed.

"I have a long trip," Gohan tried to explain then. To have this guy make a big scene over whether he drank liquor at a bar was not something he needed. "I just stopped in for a quick rest."

"It should be against law to not drink at bar," the man grumbled as he picked up a very small glass of alcohol in front of him and quickly downed the entire glass. The young man stared at the small object, bewildered by its size. Did drinking glasses come in such small sizes now?

"Umm, do you know the surrounding area?" Gohan asked, trying to change the subject.

"Do I know surrounding area?" the man restated. "Of course I do! White the Man-Bear know area like back of hand!"

"Oh. Great." Gohan was starting to get the feeling this guy was already drunk. Then again, it was the middle of the day and for some people that was a good enough time to start drinking. "Could you tell me what's to the east of here?"

White seemed to scowl at that. "Only small villages until Monkey lands. Monkeys make me sick."

"That's…nice. So how many villages are out there? What about mountains?"

"Many mountains, mostly north. Don't know all villages." White swung his head to the youth and asked "Why you want to know?"

The bartender had returned, placing a glass of water in front of Gohan. "I've just never been in the part of the world," the youth replied. "Just wanted to know what's all around here."

White pointed one of his beefy fingers at him. "That is smartest thing you've said." With his other hand, the man grabbed his small glass, which had been refilled without Gohan's knowledge, and gulped it down. "How 'bout I draw you map, yes? That should help."

Gohan lit up at the offer. "Yeah, that would be great!"

"You have something to write on?" White asked, his hands pantomiming the writing action.

"Oh, um," Gohan sputtered as he began searching himself. He knew he didn't have anything to write with much less on, but who knows, maybe he would find something. And as fate would have it, he found a blank piece of paper on his person. Success! "Here, I have this," he said as he set the paper on the bar.

"Good. Now writing pen?"

Helplessly, Gohan shrugged his shoulders, holding his hands before him to show he was pen-less as White. The larger man grunted before looking to the bartender. "Hey! You have pen?"

The bald man looked at him and grimaced—why, Gohan had no earthly clue. However, the bartender reached under the bar and pulled out a small inkwell with a feather pen sticking out of it. The man set it in front of White and said, "You want something stronger, or are shots the only thing you want?"

"Get me White Russian," White replied as he picked up the pen, placing his other hand on top of the paper and moving it closer to him. In the middle of the page, he drew a circle and many upside-down V's above it. Then towards the right of the circle he drew a few smaller circles at random points. A line was then drawn from the bigger circle and extended to the edge of the paper, a couple of the smaller circles being crossed through or residing near the line.

"Big circle is city," White began explaining, Gohan leaning in to look at the make-shift map curiously. "Marks above city are mountains and small circles are villages. Line is road."

The bartender reappeared, placing the White Russian in front of the large man. He then trudged away, going to another patron. Meanwhile, Gohan was nodding his head at White's explanation. "And what about that wet spot in the corner?"

The white-haired man looked at it before looking to the young man. "That water."

"You mean like a lake or something?"

"No, just water."

"Oh." Gohan could feel his face warming up from that exchange. To hide his embarrassment, he picked up the paper and put it in front of his face, looking at it intently. Slowly, he turned in his seat towards White before lowering the map and placing it down on the bar. "Thank you very much."

Oddly enough, White seemed to look right through him, as if he were in a daze, before he snapped back into reality. "Very welcome. Hey, you very scrawny. You need food, yes?"

Gohan unconsciously lowered a hand to his stomach, a hunger pain hitting him. "I don't want to impose or anything…" he drifted off.

"Nonsense! Growing boys need food! Bartender!" The bald man looked to White before lumbering over to the two men. "Get boy food."

"B-but I don't have any money," Gohan protested.

The bartender scowled at White. "I can't get him food if he don't got any money."

"I pay for it," White replied without hesitation.

The bartender rolled his eyes before walking off, heading towards the kitchen. In the meantime, Gohan stared at the white-haired man in astonishment. "Are…are you sure about this?" he stuttered unsure.

"Of course! It wrong not to feed fellow traveler. Now, sit here and save place for me. I have to use Men's Room." And with that, White hauled his large form off the bar stool and began lumbering towards the back of the tavern. Watching him go, Gohan eventually turned his head to look straight ahead of him. Who would have thought he would have met such a person here? Underneath that drunk, hulking exterior was a very generous man. You just had to get to know him was all.

Placing his forearms onto the bar, the young man began to absently tap on the wooden surface with his fingers. It wasn't long before the bartender appeared with a large bowl of some sort of stew, a large hunk of bread sticking out of it next to the bowl's rim. Placing it down in front of Gohan, the bald man also set down a wooden spoon, one that the dark-haired youth picked up and began digging into the food.

A large beefy hand then clasped the young man's shoulder, causing him to look up. White had appeared, looking at him blankly. "This him."

Staring at the large man oddly, Gohan's attention was soon diverted to three guards in leather armor, the ribbon insignia showing prominently from their chests. Each guard was focused on the young man,each with one of their hands resting on the hilt of their respective swords. A sinking feeling began growing in Gohan's stomach then.

One of the guards then moved to stand right next to him. "Prince Gohan of the Monkey House, you are hereby under arrest."

* * *

The prison cell was a dank, dark place. The unnaturally smooth walls were stained with water damage, most likely by a leaky roof. The cell was only wide enough for a bed to be positioned along the back wall and a wooden bucked had been placed beneath the bed in the event a prisoner had to expel anything.

As of yet, Gohan had not had the need to expel anything.

The metal bars that held him in the tiny room were only a couple steps away. The young man could have literally stood up from the bed, take two steps, and he would have been pressing his chest against the bars. The only source of light in the cell was the lanterns that hung in the hallway and neither of them were in sight. At least there was a tiny window above the bed, which allowed some moonlight to flow through, though naturally the opening had thick, metal bars inserted in it as well.

The place was merely a holding area before the dark-haired youth was sent to a more sophisticated prison. The main castle had had a crime wave over the last couple of months, so the dungeon there had been at max capacity for awhile. So instead of shipping him to the castle only to find out there was no room for him, the guards had taken him here and sent a query for room to the castle. Undoubtedly, Gohan would be escorted to the castle in the morning and any chance of freedom he had would die there.

Not like he had a chance of escaping here.

Disarmed and searched for any suspicious items on his person, the clothes on his back were all that Gohan was allowed to wear. He had a distinct lack of lock-picking skills and he wasn't sure he could fight off an armed guard before he was transferred. He was stuck in this tiny room until he was moved to another tiny room and that only served to depress the youth.

Leaning his back against the cold, hard wall, Gohan wondered what would become of him. Imprisonment was obviously a possibility. Another was execution and Gohan had a feeling that would be heavily favored. There was a reason why his wanted poster had "Dead or Alive" printed on it.

That was another thing; how the youth had been dumb enough to show anyone his own wanted poster without knowing it had to be some record in the stupidity books. He had practically turned himself in! He might as well have walked up to a garrison and asked if they'd pay him the reward money for turning himself in. Hmm…perhaps they would be willing to give him part of the reward money?

"Psst!"

Gohan's head jerked up as his body flinched with surprise. Searching his cell, the young man didn't see anything that would have made that noise. _Huh, wonder what made that sound…_

"Hey! Up here!" a soft voice hissed at him.

Immediately, Gohan looked up to the window above his head. Seeing a dark form filling up most of the opening, the young man stood up from the bed and turned to face the figure. _What did this guy want?_

Staring at the figure, the dark-haired youth noticed the person was kneeling down, their head bowed down so they could look through the window. That must have meant the holding cell was in a basement or something. The lack of lighting was keeping most of the person's identity secret, but Gohan had a nagging feeling he knew who the person was.

Sagging his shoulders, Gohan asked, "What are you doing here, Videl?"

A part of the young man felt that the boy was here to gloat over his capture, or maybe angrily tell him how much of a colossal idiot he was and how much Videl had wanted to personally take him down. The lad had gone out of his way to make sure no one captured Gohan before he did, so it must have been irritating to have his prey captured not by another person's ingenuity, but having the prey unwittingly give himself away to the authorities.

"Wondering how you finally got captured," Videl said as he stared at Gohan with focused blue eyes. "I thought you were smart enough to avoid getting caught."

Gohan grimaced. "Not smart enough apparently," he grumbled.

"So how did it happen?" the boy pressed.

Well, telling the truth was just too embarrassing and even though he didn't show it, the young man did have some semblance of pride. "Someone recognized me from a wanted poster. Next thing I know I'm being dragged here."

Though he wasn't sure why he was doing it, Gohan seemed to feel better talking to Videl. Considering where his future was going, this was probably going to be the last time he talked to someone freely, even if that person was a bounty hunter.

Videl was quiet after his explanation, seemingly lost in thought. "You know, I could get you out of here."

Gohan raised an eyebrow at that. "You can? Why would you do something like that?"

"You don't sound interested," the boy replied uncaring instead. "I guess you do want to be locked away for the rest of your life."

Panic seized Gohan's heart. "No!" he shouted before clamping his hands over his mouth. Looking over his shoulder, he stared at the hallway, waiting to see if a guard would appear to investigate his outburst. When none came, the young man sighed as he dropped his hands from his face. "No, that's not what I meant. Of course I would like to escape, but I don't understand why you would want to help me."

"I wouldn't worry about that," Videl responded. "Fact is that I am willing to help if certain conditions are agreed to."

"Such as?"

"Once I get you out, you do not leave my side— _e_ _ver._ " At this, Videl's tone dropped to dangerous levels. "And when we leave the city, you _will_ travel with me until _I_ tell you otherwise. Are those acceptable?"

Gohan swallowed. On one hand, Videl's deal would get him out of jail. On the other, he was pretty sure that Videl had something else up his sleeve and was more than willing to put it to action once they were out of the city. Still, what ever chance he had of freedom was greater with Videl at his side than in this prison. It was a choice between evils and at the moment it seemed this bounty hunter was the lesser of the two. "Y-yes, I can accept those," he answered hesitantly.

Videl nodded his head before his eyes narrowed. "And don't even think of trying to escape from me again. I swear I will break both of your legs if I have to."

Frantically, Gohan nodded his head. "Okay, okay, just…how are we going to do this?"

"You don't have to do anything. Just be ready when I tell you to be."

 _Just be ready?_ _That's it?_ Gohan was beginning to question if this guy even had a plan to get him out of here. Just his luck the bounty hunter would be making something up on the fly and they would end up running and screaming down the streets of the city with an armed brigade hot on their tails.

Coming out of his depressing musings, the young man found that Videl had taken off, leaving him alone again. Staring at the window for a moment, Gohan let out a sigh before moving to sit on the bed. He wasn't sure what that guy was up to, or what he planed to get him out of here, but the dark-haired youth hoped it would be successful. He wouldn't have minded if it was quick either.

Unfortunately, Gohan found himself sitting on that bed for awhile, every second making him wonder if Videl was really trying to get him out, or if he had decided to forget the arrangement and leave. That last option was quickly tossed aside due to the evidence of Videl's constant hunting of him. If the bounty hunter was content with Gohan being imprisoned, he wouldn't have appeared at his cell and extend an off—"

A loud, thunderous roar suddenly erupted, a violent tremor rocking the cell and causing Gohan to fall off the bed and onto the floor. Cascades of dust fell from the roof, creating a smoky atmosphere. Blinking his eyes, Gohan quickly scrambled onto his feet and jumped onto the bed mattress. Grabbing the metal bars, the young man strained his arms as he held himself high enough to look out the opening.

What he saw were dark figures running all over the place, raised voices shouting out words the young man couldn't quite figure out. Off to the right somewhere was a very bright glow—something that reminded Gohan of firelight. Trying to get a better look, the young man did everything he could to see the source of the light, yet he couldn't quite manage it.

Grimacing, Gohan let go of the bars and hopped off the bed and onto the floor. Just as he landed on the smooth ground, a familiar figure appeared in front of the cell.

Videl was on edge as he glanced from side to side, a large ring of keys in one of his hands. Staring at him, Gohan watched as the boy searched through the many keys on the ring, searching for the right one. "Umm, Videl? What did you do?"

"Ignited a bunch of kerosene in the armory," Videl answered as he picked a key and inserted it into the lock. That one appeared to be the right one as the bounty hunter turned the key and an audible click was heard. The door of the cell swung open a second later.

"You blew up an armory?" The youth blinked his eyes at that. That seemed to be a bit extreme to him.

"Well, I didn't have a lot of options, so if you want to get out of here, now would be the time."

Not needing any more invitation than that, Gohan was on his way out, following Videl as he took off down the hall. The two were silent as they reached the end of the corridor, taking a left into a doorway that opened into a large room. The dark-haired youth recognized it as the main room where he had been processed and searched. There were only a couple of tables and chairs in the wooden room, but compared to the rest of the jailhouse, it looked rather homely. _Hey, perhaps I can get my stuff back._ "Hey Videl? Can we stop to get—"

"No time," Videl interrupted harshly. "We need to get out of here now. I don't know when the guards will be back."

 _So much for that._ The two soon exited out of the jailhouse, bursting into the open air. Taking a deep breath of it, Gohan could practically taste the freedom that came with it. _Oh sweet, delicious freedom…_

Videl's hand grabbed his arm then and gave it a hard tug. Immediately, Gohan found himself stumbling after a running Videl as he led the youth down a street. Gohan wasn't sure where he was being led to, but he quickly fell into pace with the bounty hunter. The young man even ignored the urge to look back to see how much damage Videl had caused at the jail. However, he could definitely hear the shouts and screams.

Time lost all meaning for the rest of the escape. It wasn't until they were out of the city, resting by a nearby stream that Gohan noticed it was still fairly dark; it must have been sometime in the early morning judging by where the moon was in the night's sky. Looking to Videl's sitting form by the stream, the young man stared before he gathered the courage to speak. "Thanks for helping me."

Videl didn't look at him for several moments, eventually turning his head to regard the youth. "You do remember our agreement, right?"

Gohan grimaced at that. "Yeah, yeah I do."

"Good. Now let's get going. I'd rather the entire city be far behind us when they realize you're not still in jail."

The young man nodded his head and offered a hand to the bounty hunter to help him up. Videl took the hand and hoisted himself up, dusting off his backside absently as he began walking downstream. He didn't seem to be worried at all that Gohan would bolt at the moment, confident that the wanted man would follow him.

And he was right. Gohan kept up with Videl's calm pace, keeping behind him and to a side. He owed the bounty hunter for the moment and was beholden to follow. He wasn't sure what he would do in the morning, but for the moment, it was best to stay with the one person that didn't seem to be after his head at the moment.

Even if that person had every intention of putting him back in prison later.

* * *

Credit goes to Ms Videl Son for the White Russian joke. She was tickled pink when she thought it up and demanded it make its way into the story. Who was I to say no?

To Guest1: Give or take a couple weeks, but thereabouts. That adventure, though, is another story entirely.

To Zerolink100: No, can't say that I am. It took quite a bit of work to work those out and it's pretty damn amazing they came out like they did. I was thinking about doing it, but I pretty much puckered myself out with polishing this puppy off.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved.


	4. Stuck With My Captor

Things had been surprisingly uneventful since Gohan had escaped Gerova with the assistance of Videl. The young man had fully expected guard units to be pursuing them the moment the jailors realized he wasn't in the cell. Yet, neither patrol nor hungry reward-seekers had hunted him and his current captor. It was relieving and unnerving all at once.

Videl didn't seem perturbed by the development. In fact, he seemed fine without having to fight their way across farmland and fields.

The mountains to the north loomed over them, their shadows reaching out to the dirt path the two travelers walked on, yet never reaching. They were clearly out in the open, not that there was anything they could hide behind since everything was flat. The sun was high and there were birds whistling somewhere off in the fields. It had all the makings of a pleasant, peaceful day.

Still, despite this calming atmosphere, Gohan was reluctant to talk to Videl. Although he would have loved some conversation, there just wasn't much he could talk about to the bounty hunter. _"So what are you going to do with the reward money after you've turned me in?"_ or _"Why did you start chasing me?"_ were hardly acceptable subjects for small talk. Plus, Gohan didn't think he'd like the answers; some things were best left unsaid.

"Keeping going straight."

Gohan nearly jumped out of his thoughts. Looking around himself, the young man found that he and his captor had reached a fork in the road, one that continued east while the other went south. Videl was clearly indicating that they would continue going east.

"Whatever you say," he replied to him. "You're the boss."

Videl didn't acknowledge the reply. He only remained silent for a few moments before he said, "You've been pretty quiet."

"I don't really have much to say," the young man said with a shrug. "There's not much we can talk about."

"Sure there is," Videl disagreed cheerfully. "For instance, you can tell me where you got the bright idea to walk right into the capital city of the Ribbon House. I would have thought that would be the last place you would go."

"Well, I am on the run," Gohan retorted none too politely. "I figured you wouldn't have followed me to a city since I had never been to one since you've been chasing me."

Videl seemed quiet at that, something that Gohan felt a smug satisfaction about. Then the bounty hunter said, "I guess I can see your logic—if I didn't consider that the very people that put a bounty on your head resided in that very city. Oh yeah, I'm wanted by one of the Higher Houses and I'm going to hide in the very one that wants me more than any of the others. That's a very good plan."

That soured Gohan's mood. He really could have done without the sarcasm that dripped with every word the guy said. "I was doing a good job actually," he pouted. "I had even got directions before I was arrested."

"And how did you get arrested?"

Gohan fell silent on that question. One moment he had been talking with that Bear-Man guy, the next the guy had walked off and brought guards with him. Why the guy had wanted guards was beyond the young man; he was nicknamed the Man-Bear for crying out loud! Shouldn't he have wrestled him or something more manly? "I really don't know," he admitted, albeit a fib. "One moment I was sitting with this guy and the next he walks off and tells the guards where I am."

Videl rolled his eyes at that. "You know, since there is a bounty on your head, there are wanted posters of you. He could have recognized you from those."

"But that guy was drunk. I mean, I've never seen anyone drink as much alcohol as he did and be able to think straight."

"Gohan, the only time you've seen someone drunk was…well, you've never seen someone properly drunk."

That made the dark-haired youth frown. The sudden change in Videl's words had seemed off, as if he wanted to stay away from a particular subject. It bore thinking about after he defended his honor. "How would you know that? We didn't meet until last month. I could have done all sorts of things while you weren't around."

"Okay then, how many bars and taverns have you been to in the last year?"

Gohan looked proud as he answered, "Two."

Videl raised an eyebrow as he added, "Excluding this last time?"

"Two."

"So what were you doing there? You don't seem like the type to want to drink."

"Well…I didn't…drink…" Gohan trailed off. The reason why he went to those taverns was so he could hide out. Getting lost in a crowd really helped to get rid of any tails and he had done that twice. And now that he thought about it more, he had pretty much done it as well in Gerova. "I don't think you'd be interested in what I did," he then said in an attempt to brush off the topic.

Videl didn't seem like he agreed with the change. "We've got a long way ahead of us so there's no point in being shy."

"What about you then?" the young man asked. "Have you ever been in a tavern?"

"Yeah," the bounty hunter said matter-of-factly. "It was—wow, it feels like a long time ago."

"So you're not much of a drinker."

"I'm more of a wine drinker than I am beer."

Gohan was taken back by that response. _Wine? What's he doing drinking that?_ Wine was a very expensive drink after all. The nobility were the main consumers of it so it was very rare that a commoner had the opportunity. Yet Videl acted as if he had plenty in his life time. "Who are you?" he blurted out.

The bounty hunter looked to him, an odd expression on his face. It was as if he wasn't sure how to answer Gohan's question, but wanted to give some form of an answer.

However, the lad never got the chance. In the middle of the road that they were walking on was a nice-sized pothole, the only imperfection with the road and surrounding terrain for miles and miles. The chances of actually stepping in it were nil if a person saw it and made sure they moved around it. But as fate would have it, Videl stepped right into it, throwing his balance off and causing him to fall face first to the ground.

Instantly, Gohan reached out to steady the boy. Although he wasn't fond of Videl considering their history, he wasn't about to let him get hurt. It was a life lesson that had been instilled in him somewhere in his forgotten past and it was very insistent that it be obliged.

Grabbing onto Videl's far shoulder with one hand, Gohan placed his other hand on the bounty hunter's chest to steady him. "Careful," the young man said automatically.

Videl blinked his eyes for a moment before using Gohan's assistance to reaffirm his footing. "Thanks," he said genuinely. The familiar warmth from doing a good deed filled up Gohan, causing him to return the grin.

However, that feeling dissipated a moment later when something odd reached the young man's mind. For one thing, Videl's chest felt weird. It wasn't as firm as his was. If anything, Gohan would have said it felt soft and slightly flabby. It wasn't something the dark-haired youth would have associated with a bounty hunter, especially one that seemed quite fit to keep up with him.

Then again, how could he be sure Videl was as athletic as he thought? Just looking at the lad showed he preferred clothes in a size too large. He could have been a bigger person once and managed to lose weight. That had to be it. He just had a flabby chest from losing weight!

"Uhh, are you going to be hanging onto me for awhile, or are you going to let go?"

"Oh, sorry," Gohan removed his hands calmly. The sensation of Videl's chest lingered on his palm. It'd go away eventually, or so he assumed. Once more, the two resumed their walking. Their previous conversation was all but forgotten, leading them into yet another long period of silence.

As fate would have it though, that silence would come to an end as they approached a lone tree that stood on the side of the road. On the opposite side was a bush and in front of that was a man who seemed to be moaning in relief. "Ohhhhhh, yeah. That's much better."

"I told you you should've gone back in that village, but nooooo, you had to be a tough guy and claim that you could hold it," a voice said from the tree. "Some bladder control you have."

"You would think people would have the decency to do that business away from the road," Videl growled with irritatation next to Gohan. The young man only found himself nodding in agreement to that statement. He also found himself—and Videl—slowing down until he came to a stop, watching the man by the bush and his mysterious companion.

"So you think he'll come this way?" the man by the bush asked with an odd-sounding accent, his head turning towards the tree. His long blond hair was held together with a hair tie, the hair hanging limply down his back.

"He better come this way if that villager knows what's good for him. At this, a woman with long, messy blonde hair appeared from behind the tree, her balled up hands placed against her hips. She was looking coolly at her male counterpart as if she was firmly in control and he was just along for the ride.

The man fiddled with the front of his tan pants before turning to completely face the woman. "So who's turn is it to take out the target?"

"Mine, Van," the woman said firmly, her tone clearly indicating that there would be no compromise. "You got to do it last time, remember?"

"You know, I get the feeling they're talking about me," Gohan said quietly to Videl. Although this couple was talking rather loudly, he wasn't ready to make his presence known to them yet.

"Probably safe to say," Videl agreed, eyes focused on the two blonds.

"So…got any ideas to get around them?"

"I'm working on something—just hold your horses."

"You know that last bounty was a disappointment," Van argued. "That guy pissed his pants once he saw us. I didn't even get to shot 'em."

The woman rolled her eyes as she put her weight on one leg, the other one bending out in front of her. This allowed Gohan to see that her closest leg was covered by a pants leg while the other, rather shapely leg was completely bare until it reached the top of her boot. "You know the drill, you shoot one, I shoot one. That's how we've always done it. Sometimes you don't get to shoot."

"You always get to shoot," Van groused disdainfully. Crossing his dark-sleeved arms over his chest, he continued to complain "When ever it's my turn, I'm lucky if I get to shoot and you promised I'd always have a chance to shoot."

"Quit your whining," the woman reprimanded harshly. "You're a professional, so act like one. Sheesh, what if the target shows up and you're acting like a snot-nosed baby? Yeah, he'll be real impressed by that."

While Gohan would have loved to hear more, sudden movement at his side alerted him to Videl moving behind him. "Give me your arms," he whispered lowly, grabbing his forearms and moving them to his back.

"What are you doing?" Gohan asked back, looking over his shoulder as he stared at the top of the bounty hunter's head.

"Making it look like I caught you," the lad replied. Pulling out his belt, he wrapped it around Gohan's arms and tightened it up. "I don't have any rope on me, but hopefully they won't look too hard at it. Now, let's walk up to them and say hi. The sooner they think you've been caught, the sooner they'll stop hunting you. Now, hunch over, hang your head, and act like you don't want to be here."

Upon hearing that, Gohan couldn't help but grumble, "But I don't want to be here."

"That's the spirit!"

With a push to the back, Gohan felt himself being force-marched towards the talking bounty hunters. Doing as Videl had suggested, he bowed his head down, hunching his shoulders up and trying to look as little as possible. Unfortunately, his captor was smaller than him, so it was impossible to be as small as he hoped he be.

Trudging their way to the mystery couple, Gohan could feel his nerves acting up with each step that brought them closer. The two bounty hunters didn't seem to notice them until they were a few feet away. The moment they turned their heads, the youth bowed his head lower, trying his best to obscure his features.

Unfortunately, they had keener eyes than had been hoped for. "Hey, that's the guy!" the woman exclaimed. Automatically, the man pulled out a miniature crossbow and aimed it right at the dark-haired man.

"Hey!" Videl immediately protested, pulling hard on the belt and forcing Gohan to come to a stop. "This is my prisoner, ya hear?"

"Where the heck did you catch him?" the man called Van asked, his eyes narrowed with greed at as stared at Gohan's cringing form. "We've been waiting for this fellow for awhile."

"Caught him outside of Gerova," Videl replied flippantly. It was almost as if he didn't care that there were two people just waiting to kill the young man. That was not a comforting feeling. "I've had to rough him up a couple times, but he's been cooperative since."

"What's your name?" the woman asked, her attention on Videl. She didn't seem to be paying any attention at all to Gohan.

"I go by Vee," the guy replied. "And you are?"

"I'm Hasky," the blonde woman replied before pointing to Van. "And that's Van Sant."

"Nice to meet you. Now I need to get this pest back to Namic so if you would, move out of the way."

"Now hold on a second," Van Sant said, moving in front of them. "We've been waiting too long to see a bloke like you steal our bounty. Hand him over and we'll let you live."

"For once, I agree," Hasky chimed in, also moving in front of them. "Hand over the wimp and get lost."

Gohan felt himself be roughly pulled back as Videl stepped around him and put himself in front of the youth. "He's mine, end of discussion. Now go get your own bounty."

Van leveled his mini-crossbow right at the lad, a shark-like grin on his face. "I don't think so."

Videl glared furiously before muttering something under his breath. The next thing anyone knew, the crossbow burst into flames, Van Sant immediately letting go of it as he yelped in pain. He shook his hand to sooth the burning it took.

"What the hell happened?!" Hasky exclaimed, her eyes wide as she stared at the still-burning weapon.

"Why are you asking me?" Van demanded back. "Must've misfired or something."

"Misfired? How the hell does a crossbow burst into flames when it misfires?!" the blonde woman roared with irritation. "Actually use that pitiful brain of yours."

As Van Sant looked ready to retort something insulting, Gohan sagged his shoulders and sighed. All of this fighting over him? He really must have done something bad in his previous life. No way should people be getting so worked up over someone like him. Deciding that perhaps the best thing to do was to keep moving, he began walking around the two arguing bounty hunters to continue on the path. Surprisingly, no one stopped him, not even Videl, as he walked further away from the argument.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?!" Hasky and Van Sant suddenly yelled at him. Apparently they had noticed his sudden movement.

However, that caused them to look completely away from Videl, who had remained standing where he had been. Once the two blonds had looked away from him, the lad reached up with both of his hands and place one on the side of Van Sant's head and the other on the opposite side of Hasky's. He then slammed the bounty hunters' heads together with an audible crack, the two of them dropping to the ground in a heap. Just looking at them, the stars that formed on their eyes indicated they were not conscious.

"That settles that," Videl commented as he dusted his heads together. Stepping over them, he then walked up to Gohan, grabbed his bound hands, and removed the belt. As he began placing back around his waist, he said, "Let's gets going."

Gohan just nodded his affirmation.

* * *

Van Sant, by the way, is the gunman that shot Hercule and Buu's dog in the DBZ canon. He's sillier in this, obvious, but I thought it was worth pointing out since he's not as well known as other side characters.

To Guest: Oh, there's an amount, it's just very, _very_ big. It sorta helps that I have most, if not the entire story written before I post. There's a reason it took five years for this story to start being posted lol.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	5. Tumble in the Forest

The weather had been warming up over the last day or so. Probably helped since they were moving towards a more temperate climate, but if it got any hotter, Gohan was gonna start missing the coolness that the mountain range presented. It wasn't hot enough that he was sweating, but it was starting to get slightly uncomfortable. At least with the mountains, a chilly breeze would come in from them and cool him off. Unfortunately, the humongous presence of the mountains with their snowy white-capped peaks had come to an end a day ago. The only reminder of them was a glance towards the horizon behind the young man and his captor.

The terrain had remained quite flat, allowing for farmers to farm the land. In fact, the two of them had stayed in a barn of one of the more hospitable farmers last night. The hay had made for an excellent bed. But now, there were no more farms, just more fields of grass similar to the one that they had encountered Hasky and Van Sant at—just without the backdrop of the mountains nearby.

However, the dirt path they were on was bringing them closer and closer to a forest up ahead. The beginning of the tree line rested on top of a small hill, one that the two were walking up on. Reaching the top, Gohan and Videl stared into the small gap the trail created as it led into the forest.

"Almost there," Videl said with relief as he gazed into the thicket of trees and bushes.

Gohan turned his head to look at the shorter boy. "Almost where?"

The bounty hunter merely nodded his head down the path and said, "There's a checkpoint further into the Gurro Forest. That's where the border between Ribbon and Monkey lands is. If we can reach it, we won't have to worry about any more surprise attacks."

There was a small pause before Videl added, "Other than the ones from Sharpner."

Now there was a fellow that didn't know how to give up. Somehow, someway, the blond hadn't managed to catch up with them and try to capture Gohan. For some reason he never made an attempt when Videl was around, but the dark-haired youth felt that was more coincidental. Sharpner just seemed to stumble upon Gohan at odd times—one of which the young man had been doing some business in a bush. At the time the blond man was wandering around aimlessly before he tripped over a rock and fell headfirst into the bush. It had been his screams of disgust that alerted Gohan to his presence.

For the time being though, they hadn't seen the guy and it was starting to get about the time where he would make a nuisance of himself. Gohan wasn't going to say that out loud, though—that was a good way to jinx yourself after all.

"But won't the guards stationed at the checkpoint arrest me?" Gohan pointed out. "I mean, would they even allow a bounty hunter to take a prisoner through it alone?"

"Gohan, everyone is after you," Videl replied warily. "It's just that the Monkey House is the lesser of all evils here. They're not going to kill you on sight, unlike the Ribbon or Demon Houses."

"You know, maybe if you had just said that in the first place, you wouldn't have had to drag me here," Gohan said indignantly. Being a wanted man was still a bit of a sore spot with him.

"Well, maybe I would have if you didn't keep running off on me every chance you got," Videl shot back with a snort of irritation. "I even tried dragging you this way, but you just had to escape and head to the capital of the Ribbon House of all places." There was a pause before the lad growled. "Have I told you how dumb that was of you to go there?" The only response he got was silence. "No? Well, I'm telling you now: it was stupid. I thought you would've figured out by now that anyplace Ribbon, or Demon-related is not a good place for you to be. I mean, I've seen a lot of stuff that I consider brainless, but that was the stupidest thing I've ever seen someone do and I know Sharpner."

Gohan kept quiet at that. For some reason, it sounded like the bounty hunter wasn't all that interested in collecting the reward money, something that was contradictory to everything he knew about the boy. The reprimanding, this journey to somewhat-friendly territory—that didn't speak of a greedy money-seeker that chased him all over the Four Kingdoms, fighting off other headhunters, and resorting to tying him up. The way Videl made it sound, he had no interest in the bounty. "So…you wanted me to come this way," Gohan hesitantly said. "But what about the bounty?"

Videl finally turned his head to give him an annoyed look. "Oh, the Monkey House has a bounty on you too. They're just willing to pay more for you alive."

"Ah." Once more the young man fell silent. So Videl was hoping he would head towards Monkey territory and catch him when they got close to the border, making his work all that much easier. "I guess you got tired of waiting for me."

"You could say that," was the succinct reply. "Now let's get going before something else delays us."

Gohan watched as Videl began walking once more. He was still a bit disappointed by the boy's confession. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but perhaps there was some other motive other than the reward money. How depressing to find out that any such fantasy was untrue. Raising a hand up, he began scratching the back of his head.

However, the lad noticed Gohan wasn't keeping up with him and came to a stop several paces away. Turning around, he looked at the young man and said, "Are you coming or not? We don't have…all…day…"

Gohan noticed that Videl's speech trailed off and frowned. Watching him, the boy's blue eyes had moved off of him and were staring at something behind Gohan. Moving to look behind him as he dropped his hand to his side, the young man soon saw a group of men off in the distance heading their way. Though they were more dark spots, they all seemed to have similar clothes on. Before he knew it, Videl was at his side, squinting his eyes to get a better look. The dark-haired youth heard the bounty hunter mutter something unintelligible, waited a moment, and then saw Videl widened his eyes. "Crap," he cursed, "That's an armored squadron from the Ribbon House and they're heading this way."

Gohan raised a hand and held it over his eyes, willing himself to see further. "How can you tell? They've got to be pretty far off."

"I used magic, how else?" Videl snapped impatiently. "Now hurry! Into the trees! We've got to get to that checkpoint fast!"

Instantly, Gohan felt the lad grab his arm and jerk him around as he pulled the youth into the forest. Stumbling at first, Gohan managed to get his balance back and ran as fast as he could to keep up with Videl. Trees flew by them as they raced further and further down the trail.

Unfortunately, they weren't able to go as far as they would have liked. While they were running, Videl must have heard something as he came to an abrupt halt right in front of Gohan. Unprepared for the sudden stop, the young man plowed into the back of his companion, pushing him forward in a stumble. Videl managed to get his balance back, but went straight as a post, his head turning slightly side to side.

For some reason, the boy's odd behavior made Gohan uneasy. "What's going on?" he asked, his voice coming out in a soft whisper.

Videl remained quiet until he turned his head back to look at the young man. "There are other soldiers here," he said back, also keeping his voice low. "Idiot—can't believe I didn't think they'd put people in here."

"So what do we do?" the dark-haired youth asked worriedly.

"Well, we can't go back. We know there are soldiers that'll be showing up at the edge of the forest any time now. And if we keep going forward, we're gonna run into someone, and they're not the people we want to meet. We're damned no matter which way we go."

Gohan took a moment to look further up the trail before looking behind him. For some reason, each direction seemed more foreboding than they had been a second ago. Moving to look back at Videl, he soon became distracted by the trees around them. Were there also people among the trees?

That was when a loud snap was heard, causing both young men to flinch in fright. Not sure where it originated from, Gohan jerked his arm out of Videl's grasp and grabbed the lad's arm. Immediately, the young man dashed off the dirt path and into the trees, dragging Videl behind him. Hopefully they could hide out somewhere until they were sure whoever was out there was gone.

Unfortunately, that plan came to an end as a sudden drop-off appeared and Gohan had all the luck to step right over the ledge. With a cry, he fell towards the ground a short distance below, pulling Videl with him all the while. Unfortunately, the ground was sloped, causing the two to bounce and roll through bushes and over tree roots. Dirt was kicked up into the air as they crashed by. Somewhere, Gohan lost his grip on Videl and found himself completely alone as the world around him spun over and over from the leaf-filled canopy to the uncomfortable forest floor.

As Gohan bounced down the slope, random parts of his body colliding with the ground, something heavy landed on top of him. The young man had no idea what it could have been and just as sudden as it appeared, it flew off of him.

And then the rolling came to a stop as the terrain leveled out. Rolling to a stop, Gohan laid still, panting heavily while trying to recover from the unnecessary beating his body had taken. And as luck would have it, his body had to choose to lie on top of a log—what a lovely place to rest on.

Planting his face firmly into the bark, Gohan was surprised to find that it was soft and not the hard, coarse surface he was expecting. It felt nice to the touch and if he was honest, he'd admit there was a sponginess to it that made him want to burrow his face further into it. Who knew a log would make such a great pillow?

"Ahem."

 _Huh? Is it making sounds now?_

"You know, anytime you're ready, you can pull your face off my chest."

Slowly, Gohan tilted his head up, finding the face of Videl looking towards him. The guy didn't seem too angry—in fact, he seemed amused by the whole thing. Slowly, the dark-haired youth looked to a side and then the other, finding that he was indeed lying on top of his comrade and he was moments away from cuddling with him.

Gradually, Gohan placed his hands on the ground on either side of Videl and pushed himself off the boy. He raised himself until he was able to sit up, his legs tucked underneath him, which was inconveniently between Videl's legs. Videl merely sat himself up before getting onto his feet. With one of his hands, he began brushing off his shirt, knocking off dirt, grass, and twigs off of him. "In the future, please don't run us off a cliff," he said, ignoring their previously compromising position, "I'd rather not go through that again."

"Yeah, sure thing," Gohan quickly agreed, nodding his head over-eagerly. "So…um, what now?"

"Well, we should probably get out of here as soon as possible. I can't imagine the ruckus we just made will go ignored, so someone will be around shortly to investigate. It'd be in our interest not to be found when that someone gets here." And with that, Videl spun to a side and began walking off.

He didn't get too far though, as his foot made contact with a thick tree root that was extending out of the ground. That root caused Videl to lose his balance and sent him falling face first to the ground with a startled cry, landing on it with a loud splat.

Gohan stared in Videl's direction for a moment before he rose onto his knees. From there he could see a large puddle of mud spreading out in all directions. Videl was lying face down in it, his arms extended out from his sides. For a moment, Gohan thought his comrade wasn't going to make a move to get out of the mud when the lad lifted his arms up and brought them closer to his body. Pushing his hands into the mud, where they sank deeper into the wet dirt, Videl gradually lifted his face and torso up into the air.

Getting onto his feet, Gohan approached Videl and knelt next to him. "You okay?" he asked.

"Ugh, gross," he heard Videl say as he sat up, gathering his legs under him similar to how Gohan had done earlier. The boy's eyes were closed as his face was covered in wet, brown mud; it was the same with most of his shirt. Raising his muck-soaked hands, he wiped off as much mud from his face as possible, leaving streaks of wet grime in his wake. At the least, he was able to open his eyes now.

With a glance down to his shirt, the young man sighed in resignation. "Great, now I'm gonna need a new shirt too. Just perfect."

"Hopefully there's a village near the border?" Gohan suggested helpfully.

"Don't know, I haven't spent too much time in Monkey lands." By now Videl's hands had moved to the top of his shirt and began undoing buttons that held the shirt closed. One by one, the boy's shirt began to open. "I really hope none of this goop got in my—"

That was when a loud crashing sound occurred behind the two, causing them both to snap their heads around. Trampling through bushes and whining quite loudly was Sharpner and he didn't seem at all that happy to be there. "Oh Kami, does this place ever end? These leafy, bush things are tearing up my pants! My beautiful, expensive pants! Oh, and who knows what crap is in my hair! It's gonna take forever to brush it out—and what is that stench! It smells like that three day old garbage can I had to sleep…"

Sharpner's rant trailed off as he caught sight of Gohan and Videl looking at him. A breeze flew by as a tumbleweed bounced by, though no one noticed it nor questioned why such a thing would be in a forest. Finally, something clicked in the blond's head as he exclaimed "Arch Enemy! I've found you at last!"

Gohan groaned. He knew it, he knew it, he knew it, he just had to think about the idiot showing up; just had to jinx it.

And yet, being a wanted man wasn't enough to keep the blond's attention sole on him. Somehow, Videl managed to wrangle it away as he pressed his dirty shirt closed against his chest, his hands crossing over each other. "Hey! It's you! And you found another mud puddle! Is there another chick around so you can do your fight again?"

The next thing Gohan knew, a moss-covered rock nailed the blond in the face, knocking him off his feet as he fell back into the bush he had previously been stomping through. Turning his head, the dark-haired youth looked to Videl, finding the guy seething with rage, his teeth bared. It wasn't much of a stretch to figure out who had thrown that rock.

Deciding not to draw the anger of his companion, Gohan stood up and walked over to Sharpner, looking down on him to make sure the guy was unconscious. Other than the large red imprint on his face and the trickle of blood coming from his nose, the blond was most definitely out.

"Well, I guess that's one less guy after us," Gohan said before turning and walking back to Videl. "We should get going."

Before they could do anything, loud clanging and crunching sounds rang out. Looking towards the hill they had fallen down, they could see movement coming from the top. The clanging had to be coming from shifting armor, Gohan assumed. The crunching sounds had to be from the footsteps of the men that undoubtedly wore that armor. So that unit that was heading into these woods had finally caught up.

The two dark-haired youths remained silent until the guard unit passed by, the silence of the forest returning. "Damn it, they got here before we reached the border," Videl groaned exasperatedly. "And they're definitely heading that way."

"Can't we just slip on by?" Gohan asked. "There has to be a place that we could cross without anyone knowing."

"I don't know," Videl relented in answer. "We honestly don't know how many patrols are out here and if someone like Sharpner can stumble on us without trying, who knows if we can avoid military guys that are actively looking for us. This place is getting too hot."

"Is there another place we could cross? Another checkpoint?"

Videl was silent for a moment before saying, "I think there's another place further north. It's not as concealed as the one here, which is what I was hoping would keep us covered until we crossed."

"Then let's head that way. We can get out of this forest and just follow it at the edge until we can make a break for it."

There was some hesitation before the smaller boy agreed with a nod. "We'll just have to do that. C'mon, let's go."

As Videl began getting back onto his feet, it seemed he wasn't able to get good enough footing as he immediately lost his balance and began falling back towards the mud. Instantly, Gohan reached out and grabbed him, holding onto him until Videl got his footing. Once he was sure his comrade wasn't going to be falling again, he began loosening his grip until the smaller guy was fully standing.

"Thanks," Videl said, giving him a grin. Raising one of his hands, he reached up and pressed it on the opposite side of Gohan's head, forcing him to lean towards the dark-haired boy.

Gohan was unsure what was going on until he felt Videl touch his lips to one of his cheeks, causing him to freeze and his eyes bulge out comically. As Videl pulled back, still smiling at him, the young man's mind was frantically trying to process what had happened. Why had Videl kissed him? That wasn't something men did to each other—ever. In fact, he was pretty sure there were laws against it. But could laws really stop a man from…liking…another man?

"Gohan? Is something wrong?" Videl asked him, looking at him worriedly.

"Oh, um," the young man stammered out. He really needed to put the guy down gently. After all, they had to travel with each other and rejecting another person's affections wasn't exactly the best way to make them civil. "It's just…I was surprised is all. I didn't know you thought that way."

Now Videl was frowning. "Thought what way?"

Gohan didn't answer that. Instead he said, "I'm flattered you would think of me that way, really, I am. But I don't swing that way—not that there's anything wrong with it! It's perfectly fine if you like guys, but I think it's best that we…uhh…stay friends?"

Videl stared at him for a moment before his eyes widen and his face went red, then twisted with anger. With a growl, he picked up one of his feet and slammed it down on Gohan's foot, causing him to yelp in pain and fall onto the ground. "OWWWW! That hurt!"

The smaller man stomped away from him. "Get moving!" he shouted over his shoulder.

"I think you broke something!" Gohan whined back as he clutched his foot.

"Suck it up!" Videl snapped back. "Quit acting like a baby and start walking!"

"You know, just because I said I didn't see you that way doesn't mean you can hit me!"

"Either you get up, or I leave you hear for the guards to find you! Which do you prefer?"

Gohan was silent. Then he mumbled, "I'm coming."

"Thought so."

* * *

To Zerolink100: Never did like seeing good stories abruptly stop due to the writer getting writer's block, or losing interest. Always bugged me, so I made it a goal to never do that.

To kirito: There's a reason for that. I can't go into that right now, of course, but I assure you it's a good one. Maybe.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	6. Mercenary

Hey everyone, there's something funky going on with FFN. Error messages are appearing every time I've updated this story, and thus story alerts aren't being sent out. I've seen a couple instances were the story stats aren't showing correct update dates. If there are any stories you're following I would recommend checking them out in case they've been updated. For this story's sake, I intend on updating every three or four days, so that should be easy to keep track of.

When the bug gets worked out, I'll make an author's note of it.

* * *

The Gurro Forest covered a very large area, Gohan soon realized. After leaving the woods and Sharpner behind, he and his newly-decloseted companion had traveled along the tree line as they made their way north. While the dark-haired youth had assumed the forest had covered a large area further east, he hadn't expected it to go so far north. He really needed to get his hands on a map one of these days, just for reference.

Videl had been keeping quiet for most of the traveling. He still was embarrassed about the rejection so was keeping to himself. Gohan wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. He really didn't know what those kind of people were like when their affections weren't returned. So silence was the best option.

However, the youth couldn't stay quiet forever. "So how far is it to the checkpoint?"

"We get there when we get there," Videl replied snippily. He hadn't even bothered to look at Gohan during his response.

"Are you still angry?" the young man asked worriedly. "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, but—"

"I _don't_ want to _talk_ about _that_ ," the lad growled.

Ouch, so that wound was still sore. Well, Gohan didn't see any reason to pour salt in it. Deciding to change the subject back to his original inquiry, he said "I've never been this way before. Do you know what's here?"

Videl was silent for several moments. Seemed he wasn't in the mood for small talk, or so Gohan thought. That assumption was disproved when Videl answered, "Just a couple trading villages. Even further are mountains, but we won't be going near those." A pause. "Ever."

Gohan raised an eyebrow at that response. "Is there something wrong with those mountains?"

"Just a bunch of people pinning over bad decisions and objects that carry signs with them. Trust me, you don't want to go there."

"Objects carrying signs? How? It's physically impossible for things to carry other things."

Videl stopped walking and turned to give him an annoyed look. "The answer is magic, alright? When something doesn't make sense, the answer is always magic."

"Oh." There was another pause as Videl began walking again. "Then would magic explain how Sharpner keeps finding us?"

"No, that's just him getting lucky. Very, very lucky."

"I don't know. He has to have a lot of luck to keep running into me. Maybe he has some sort of spell that tracks people."

A sigh came from Videl at that. "For any normal person, yeah, I would agree with that. But the thing with magic is that you have to have a brain and talent to use it. Sharpner has neither. The only thing he specializes in is shoving things up his colon."

Gohan was silent for a moment. That statement made no sense to him and considering that everything he couldn't understand usually had one explanation—or so Videl claimed—for it, which left him to say "So he has a magical colon?"

Videl opened his mouth to reply, but came up short. It seemed he was stumped by that question and proceeded to do his best impression of a goldfish. Seeing as no correction was coming, the young man assumed he had hit the nail on the head. Though why would someone want their bowels enchanted? To him it seemed like a waste of a perfectly good spell.

Ultimately, Videl managed to find his voice, though it took quite awhile for that to happen. "No, he…just…don't put those images in my head. I don't need another reason to be scarred by him."

Gohan was taken back by that statement. "He scarred you?"

"Yeah, by just knowing him. Now come on." At this, the smaller boy extended a finger, pointing it at something in front of them. Following the finger, Gohan saw what looked like a sleepy, little village. "I'd like to get there and find out if the villagers have noticed a lot of guards running up and down the area."

Gohan let out a sigh. It was rough being bored.

* * *

Videl hadn't even let him go into the village. A paranoid thought had popped in the lad's head right before they had arrived and he sent Gohan around the whole place to wait on the north side somewhere. While surprised, Gohan decided he might as well do as told. He had even found a small apple orchard not too far away from the village itself and had taken part in eating a couple. That had been a couple hours ago and there was still no sight of Videl.

Curse his luck for being a wanted man.

Glancing around the neat rows of trees, bright red apples scattered about the branches and leaves, the young man let out another sigh. Two apple cores laid carelessly at his feet as he leaned back against one of the tree trunks. If Videl didn't hurry up, a third one was about to join the cores.

It was odd though. Videl had made such a ruckus about Gohan taking off on him, you would have thought he'd never let the dark-haired youth out of his sight, and now he had clearly reversed course. Actually, odd didn't quite cover that description; it was more weird if anything.

"There you are!" a voice suddenly called out. Turning his head to look, the very person he had been waiting for was walking towards him, a relieved look on his face. "I had thought you had bolted on me."

Gohan's face fell. What was with this guy? First there was enough trust to wait by himself and now there was no trust at all? What was his deal? "Did you find anything?" he called out.

"There had been some troops recently," Videl answered immediately, quick to get down to business. "Last group was a couple days ago, but they went west. Still, there could be a couple of patrols out here and no one would know; it's a pretty big area. The sooner we get to the checkpoint, the better."

Gohan nodded his head before he glanced up to the apples hanging from the trees. "We could take some of these apples. For food," he added for clarification.

"Can't take too many of them," Videl remarked as he too looked up at the bright red fruit. "Someone might notice if too many of them are gone."

The young man merely shrugged his shoulders at his companion's cautious words before reaching up and plucking a nearby apple from the tree. Tossing it to Videl, who caught the flying fruit, he then picked another one and pocketed it before walking off. The crunching of grass behind him alerted the youth that the bounty hunter was following him.

However, Videl asked a moment later, "Umm, Gohan? How many apples did you eat?"

"Two. Why?"

By now, Gohan heard Videl stop his walking, which caused him to halt in his tracks. Turning around, he found the lad staring off at a couple of trees. Raising a hand, Videl then pointed to the base of one of the trees and said, "There's a couple more apple cores there."

Frowning, Gohan looked to see the offending cores and found them where the bounty hunter had indicated. "Perhaps someone else was eating them before I got here?" he suggested.

"Or someone was watching you as you stuffed your face with apple." Videl turned to glare at him. "I thought I told you to stay out of sight."

"You just said to stay out of the village," Gohan replied, slightly miffed. "You never said anything about hiding."

"Gohan, you're a wanted man in most of the kingdoms," Videl deadpanned. "Hiding from anyone that could turn you in shouldn't have to be said."

"A very wise statement, young man."

Gohan and Videl froze at that. Gohan could see the youth in front of him widen his eyes, much like he himself was doing. A sense of dread was filling up his gut. Staring at Videl, he soon noticed the lad was looking over his shoulder at something, his face paling. Slowly, the dark-haired youth turned around, finding a man standing a long distance away, his arms behind his back.

He hadn't been there before, Gohan knew that. In fact, he had been walking that direction before Videl had pointed out the discarded apple cores. But there he was, standing as if he had been there the entire time. If that was the case, he certainly had a lot of time to wait since his long black hair was twisted into a braid.

Yet, there was no way Gohan could have missed seeing him. Who could miss the pink long coat that clearly didn't blend in with the brown and green foliage? The long dark blue sleeves and underpants didn't do anything to camouflage him either.

The man stared at the two of them, his severe face allowing a smirk to show from beneath his thin mustache. Without warning, he began walking towards them, his moccasins barely making a sound with each step he took.

"You know, I hardly believed it when I heard you were a wanted man," the man declared arrogantly. "Yet, my eyes do not deceive me. I have never failed a job before so you can imagine my embarrassment."

Gohan's brow furrowed. What was this guy talking about? It sounded as if he knew him, but the young man had never seen this guy in his life. Or had he? Was it possible he knew him before his amnesia?

That was when the youth felt Videl grab his arm with a vice-like grip. "Gohan, run!" he shouted before dragging Gohan behind him.

Surprised, Gohan stumbled as he tried to twist around and get his feet under him. It took a few seconds, but he was able to keep up with Videl, who was pumping his short legs as fast as he could.

Something was wrong, Gohan could feel it. That order earlier wasn't Videl's usual demand; it had been filled with fear. Videl was scared of this guy and wanted nothing to do with him. That thought did not sit well with the dark-haired youth.

Turning his head around, Gohan focused on the mysterious man, who had stopped walking, allowing a larger and larger distance grow between them. However, his face didn't look alarmed in the slightest—in fact, he seemed very calmed about the entire thing.

"Cute," the man called out, his voice surprisingly carrying enough volume to reach them. "But no one escapes Tao Pai Pai."

That was when the man dashed after him. Keeping his arms behind his bag, he charged head first, the ground between him and the two youths seeming to shrink rapidly. It was then that Gohan began to understand Videl's fear as the same dread exploded within him.

"Videl!" he cried out alarmed, swinging his head back forward. The young man turned his head back to Gohan and caught sight of Tao closing in on them.

Videl's eyes widened with horror, followed by a curse. Releasing his hold on Gohan's arm, he spun his body around, extending a hand out in front of him. His fingers were pressed tightly against each other, the thumb curled into the palm as his other hand went to grab onto his bicep. All of this seemed to happen in slow motion to Gohan, even as he felt himself still running at top speed. In fact, the bounty hunter's momentum kept him right in front of the dark-haired youth, seeming to make him fly backwards. Unintelligible words were being muttered by the lad and Gohan had a feeling he knew what was coming.

A ball of fire erupted from Videl's extending hand, racing towards Tao Pai Pai. Following the flying fireball with his head, his legs slowing down as he came to a stop, Gohan watched as it closed in on its target, only to watch the man instantly spring to aside, dodging the spell as it exploded on the ground, and inexplicably increasing his speed even more. Before the young man knew it, Tao was right in front of them, seeming to hover in midair in front of both of them, his legs bent beneath him.

With a blur, Tao snapped out one of his feet, landing a kick to Videl's chest, which sent him flying away and crying out in pain. As the man landed on his feet, Gohan shook his shock-induced mind and threw a punch at him with a war cry. He was surprised when Tao shot out one of his arms from behind his back, blocking the blow.

The man suddenly dropped from sight, leaving the young man to blink owlishly before he felt something knock his legs right out from under him. He was vaguely aware of Tao's crouched form spinning on the ground, one leg extended out, clearly what had hit Gohan's own legs. With a crash, the dark-haired youth landed hard on his back, feeling the air in his lungs explode out of his mouth, leaving him breathless.

And then he was over him. Through squinted eyes, Gohan saw Tao Pai Pai hovering above him, one hand grabbing onto the youth's shoulder and the other with straightened fingers aimed right at him, a thumb curled into the palm. "This time I'll make sure you're dead," the man coldly said.

Terror ran up and down Gohan's spine as he focused on Tao's fingers, his body paralyzed with fear. He could practically feel those digits plunging into his body, sending cascades of blood everywhere. The pain that would accompany it would be indescribable, though the young man felt he would be able to describe it shortly.

However, Tao Pai Pai never had a chance to strike as something rammed into him, knocking him off of Gohan. Immediately, the young man jerked up to see what had become of his attacker, finding him sprawled on the ground with Videl on top of him. Gohan half-expected Tao to do something—from throwing the bounty hunter off of him to outright killing him—but found himself surprised to find no action at all.

Instead, Videl pushed himself off of the fallen man and scrambled over to the dark-haired youth. "C'mon!" he shouted urgently, grabbing Gohan's arm again and dragging him to his feet. "That won't hold him for long so we gotta go!" Knowing better than to argue, the dark-haired youth took off running with his companion, deciding that any questions he had would be better off asked while they were running for their lives, preferably a _very_ long distance away from here.

As they fled the orchard, the youth asked "What happened back there? Why wasn't he getting up?"

"Binding spell," Videl spat out in a rushed tone. "It should hold him, but not forever. The more distance we put between him and us, the better."

"What about the checkpoint?"

"Useless. He'd take out the entire checkpoint just to get us. We're better off hiding and hoping he doesn't find us."

Gohan glanced over his shoulder towards the orchard, not seeing any sight of the man coming after them again. "Who is he?" he inquired as he returned his head to looking forward.

"Tao Pai Pai, mercenary-for-hire." Videl's words were coming out short and clipped now. "Kills for money, no allegiance. He's after you."

"But I have half of the world's bounty hunters after me. How is he any different?"

"He'll actually succeed."

Well, that was not a pleasant thought. Wisely, Gohan decided not to follow that trail of inquiry. "So now what do we do?"

It was then the young man noticed the bounty hunter running closer to him. "Keep running to the village," he said in a very low voice, one so low that Gohan had a hard time hearing him. "When we get outside the gate, we run around it. I also placed a spell to enhance his hearing somewhat. He should have heard my previous idea of hiding, so he'll think we're going into the village rather than around it."

Gohan merely nodded his head at this. At this point, he didn't have nearly as good of a plan as Videl had come up with and he wasn't one to put down an idea, especially when he didn't have anything to contribute.

"Unfortunately," Videl continued, "we won't be able to get to the Monkey lands. This entire border is covered with people, guards, and just about anyone that'll want a piece of your reward money." The lad growled at that thought. "We're gonna have to go the long way around."

Gohan could feel himself not liking those words. "What's the long way around?"

"…the long way around."

* * *

To Zerolink100: Never underestimate Sharpner's ability to recognize babes. It's one of his secret powers, after all. As for Demon House, it has fallen, but there wasn't a mass genocide or anything. The populous was definitely scattered to the winds, though. Still, a House is more than one person, so there's been plenty of time for a rebuild.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	7. My Name is Not-Sharpner

Videl hadn't been kidding when he said they were taking the long way.

Two days had passed since that skirmish with Tao Pai Pai, two long days full of walking and now riding. Fortune had decided to bless the two as they fled and sent a carriage that just happened to be going in the direction they wanted to go. One money exchange later and Gohan and his companion were taking a load off their feet and letting two mangy-looking horses pull them all the way to Turtle lands. Unfortunately, that left Gohan with too much time on his hands and only boredom to fill it.

Oh, the first few hours had been alright considering the dark-haired youth had taken the opportunity to get some shut-eye. The seats were comfortable enough despite being made of wood. Any preconceived notion Gohan had of a well-furnished carriage died when he saw the plain wood insides from the walls to the seats. It was more like he was sitting on a moving bench than anything.

Still, the swaying motion of the carriage and the drop in adrenaline had made for a nice cocktail to put the youth to sleep and sleep he did. If the cab driver hadn't stopped to water his horses and grab some food, Gohan was sure he would've still been sleeping.

That had been the first day though. The second was proving to be harder to sleep and Gohan could feel his body begging to stretch itself out. Unfortunately, he wasn't one to stick his head outside of a moving carriage and ask for a pit stop. So in silence did he suffer.

Looking to Videl as he sat on the other side of the carriage, the youth found the lad propping an elbow against the wall, his head resting in his palm as he lazily stared at the slow-moving landscape an opening provided. Gohan supposed it was a window, though he wished there was some sort of curtain that could be put in front of it. He didn't want to be spotted after all.

Still, with Videl awake that led the dark-haired youth to consider some questions he wanted answered. Seeing as there was no escape for the bounty hunter in front of him, he decided to proceed with his inquiry. "Hey Videl?"

"Yeah?" Videl grunted out, his blue eyes lazily shifting over to him.

"I've been wondering about that Tao guy back there. You seemed to know him; what can you tell me about him?"

Videl gazed at him for awhile before he shifted in his seat, moving his head away from his hand, and straightening out his posture. "It's just like I said, Tao Pai Pai is a mercenary and a damn good one."

"And he would be after me why?" Gohan asked with a frown.

Videl rolled his eyes. "You have a bounty on your head, you know."

"I haven't forgotten," the young man huffed in annoyance. "But if this guy is such a good mercenary, then he wouldn't be after the bounty."

The bounty hunter shrugged his shoulders. "What does it matter then why he's after you? Regardless of the reason, he is and that is not a good thing."

"Because it doesn't make sense." Gohan rubbed his forehead as he felt himself growing frustrated by Videl's stonewalling. It was as if the guy didn't want to answer the questions. "I may not know a lot, but I do know the difference between a bounty hunter and a mercenary. A mercenary doesn't just go after people unless they've been hired, so this Tao Pee Pee guy has been hired by someone."

"It's Pai Pai," Videl corrected, his boredom evident in his voice. "And yeah, you're right that someone hired him, but he could've been hired by someone wanting the bounty. They just outsourced to him so that they don't have to get their hands dirty."

That seemed a little implausible to the youth. Mercenaries didn't work for peanuts, ya know. They were more likely to collect the bounty themselves than hand it over. "You also said he was a good one," Gohan pointed out, "So not just anyone could hire his services. So that means the person that hired him has money and a lot of it. So the person that hired him has no need for the bounty either."

Again, the bounty hunter shrugged his shoulders. "I guess."

And Videl was being no help. Gohan could feel his frustration mounting. Perhaps he needed to go at this from a different angle. "How did you recognize him?"

"Well, you just deduced that he's been hired by someone rich, so obviously he has a good reputation," Videl answered. "Everyone knows about him."

"I don't."

"That's because you don't have any memories. Believe me, if you heard of Tao Pai Pai, that's all you need to know because if you meet him that means you're as good as dead."

"And yet here we are after meeting him," Gohan retorted. This was met with Videl looking away, returning his gaze to the landscape. "Alright then, at least tell me about the first time you met him."

"What makes you think I met him before?"

Gohan could hear it in the lad's voice. There was a guarded tone in it and that made the youth know he was onto something. "When you saw him in the orchard, you turned as white as a bed sheet. That wasn't the look of someone recognizing him based off of reputation, that was someone recognizing him from experience."

Videl's eyes snapped over to Gohan and he knew he was right. For several moments, the bounty hunter was silent before he let out a loud sigh. "Alright, you got me. I ran into Tao once; it was not a good day for me."

"What happened?" Gohan asked curiously.

"You saw him in action," Videl deadpanned, "You tell me. Nothing good is involved with that man, make no mistake about it."

Gohan felt his shoulders sag. There was just no use in asking more about Tao Pai Pai. Videl clearly didn't want to talk about him and he was proving to be very stubborn about it. He was just going to have to table his inquiry until later.

And as it so happened, the carriage came to a stop then. Looking towards the window openings, Gohan could only see the boring grasslands and dirt road that had been around them for the last few hours. They had left the hill country a long time ago and were stuck in this endless expansive of tall grasses. There shouldn't have been any reason to stop in such a place and Gohan could feel his uneasiness grow.

Faintly, he heard two voices, one of which belonged to the cab driver and the other to some unknown person. Gohan couldn't hear much of the conversation as it was muffled, but it wasn't long before footsteps approached the door to the carriage. The hinges of the door squealed as the door opened and a young man with long blond hair climbed in.

Seeing as Videl wasn't making room for the man, Gohan immediately slid over, silently offering a seat. The blond man took the offered space and sat down comfortably.

That was when Gohan saw Videl sit up straight, his eyes glaring at the man. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

The dark-haired youth frowned at his companion. "That's not a nice thing to say."

Videl turned his head to look at him incredulously. "I'm not trying to be nice. Just look at this guy and you'll understand."

Letting his curiosity get the better of him, Gohan looked to the blond, the man turning his head to look back. The first thing that stuck out to the youth was the large nose that sat beneath a pair of black-rimmed glasses. There was also something funny about the black mustache, since it didn't match up the guy's blond hair. And now that he got a good look at him, his eyebrows were also black, though there appeared to be some blond hairs outlining the black.

"I don't understand," Gohan finally concluded.

Videl's jaw dropped upon hearing that. It took the jerking motion of the carriage to actually shake her out of her daze. "You've got to be kidding me!" he exclaimed before thrusting a hand out and pointing it at the mustached man. "That's Sharpner!"

"I am not!" the man cried out, sounding aghast. "I've never heard—" the blond stopped to cough before he began speaking again, his voice coming out deeper. "I've never heard of this Sharpner guy before, even though he sounds like an incredibly strong, incredibly handsome hero-type guy. My name is Sharp…Not-Sharpner. That's right; Not-Sharpner, even though I wished I had such a cool name as this Sharpner guy you speak of."

Gohan stared at Not-Sharpener before looking to Videl. "See, he's not Sharpner."

Not-Sharpner beamed at him as Videl slapped a hand to his face. "So where are you two going?" he asked eagerly. "You must have some place you're going to lie low…I mean, hide…I mean…visit."

Gohan was just about to answer when Videl interjected "We're just taking a ride, alright? It's not any of your business where we're going since you're stalking us."

The rudeness of which his companion spoke flabbergasted the youth. They had just met this guy after all and the lad was going out of his way to blow Not-Sharpner off. It just wasn't right. Giving Videl a reprimanding look, he attempted to apologize. "I'm sorry for my friend's attitude. He's in a cranky mood at the moment."

"So you'll tell me where you're going?"

Once more, Gohan was about to answer when he noticed Videl sitting across from him suddenly. With a hand, the bounty hunter grabbed the dark-haired youth's collar and forced him closer. "Don't say _anything_ ," Videl hissed. "This guy is after your bounty!"

The youth gave his friend an inquisitive look. "How do you know that? For all we know, he's just some guy traveling around."

"How many times do I have to tell you: you're the most wanted guy around. Everyone wants your bounty and you can't just tell anyone who you are, or where you're going. You never did that before." A pause. "In fact, you never acted this idiotic until you agreed to stay with me." A scowl appeared on the lad's face. "Are you just doing this to irritate me, or something?"

Gohan blinked his eyes as he allowed all of this to sink in. Videl was right, utterly and completely. He had been on some sort of dumb spell, doing anything that no smart person would do. With a sigh, he looked to Not-Sharpner and said, "Sorry, but I can't really tell you where we're going."

Not-Sharpner stared at him before he let out a dramatic sigh. "I was hoping you would make this easy for me, but now I see it must be done the hard way." Focusing on Gohan intently, he said "I apologize for this, but you see, my name is not Not-Sharpner."

Then with a flourish, the blond man reached off and took off his glasses, along with his nose, mustache, and eyebrows. "I am, in fact, Sharpner!"

Gohan's eyes widened. "You were disguised!"

As Sharpner preened from the exclamation, a loud slap occurred as Videl face-palmed himself loudly. "I'm surrounded by idiots."

That was ignored in favor of a different problem that appeared before Gohan. "But why would you disguise yourself? And then your name! Why didn't you have a better name? It's like you didn't think that far ahead." At this, Sharpner lowered his head slightly and coughed awkwardly. "I would think that if someone was claiming to be a hero, he would have thought of that. Something like this would only appear in a bad storyline to get a cheap laugh and nobody wants to read that."

A paranoid feeling suddenly descended on the carriages inhabitants. Slowly, they began to turn towards one of the walls, at least until Videl shot an arm out and grabbed Sharpner by his chin. "No. No, no, no, we are not doing some stupid fourth wall joke where we simultaneously turn and look at some imaginary readers that don't even exist," the bounty hunter growled. "You got that?"

That didn't stop Gohan from looking though, which caused him to frown. "Umm, which wall is the fourth one?" he asked befuddled. "There's four walls here and they all look the same. How do we know which one we're supposed to look at?"

"I was just following your lead," Sharpner admitted uncomfortably, his mouth opening and closing awkwardly due to a certain someone's hand holding it.

"It doesn't matter," Videl snapped. "We're not doing that joke and that's final. Are we clear?"

"Yes," the other two mean agreed reluctantly. With suspicious eyes, Videl looked from the dark-haired youth to the blond and back a few times before he was satisfied, releasing Sharpner's jaw soon after.

"Well, I thought it would've been good," Sharpner grumbled as he crossed his arms over his chest and began to pout.

"Don't want to hear it," Videl retorted.

That was when the carriage came to yet another stop. However, this one was different as they heard the cab driver scream and ran past the carriage, heading the other way. Startled, the three stared out the openings in the carriage, blinking their eyes as they wondered what was going on, or at least that's what Gohan thought the other two were doing. It wasn't always a good idea to assume what the others were doing, even if they had the same expressions on their faces as he did.

"I…wonder what that's about," the young man said out loud, earning him two agreeing head nods. However, none of them made a move to check out what had scared the cab driver.

"Well, go check it out Sharpner," Videl prodded.

"Me?" the blond exclaimed. "I ain't going out there!"

"But I thought you were a hero. Heroes always check out weird things."

The blond made to debate that point when he froze. Videl had him there. Yet, without much surprise, he continued to argue, "No, no, heroes always have disposable sidekicks to check things out." Looking to Gohan, he then ordered, "Sidekick, go check it out."

Feeling as if they weren't going anywhere, the youth grunted before he began to move towards the door. The only thing that stopped him from actually doing it was Videl's hand shooting out and grabbing him. "Oh no, need I remind you, he's your Arch Enemy. He's not your sidekick anymore so you have to go out there."

Sputtering noises came from Sharpner's mouth as he once again tried to argue. It took awhile before he could form something that resembled a sentence. "Can't we call a truce?"

"Are you still after Gohan's bounty?"

"Who the hell is Gohan?"

"I'm Gohan," Gohan said.

"Shut up, Arch Enemy, I wasn't talking to you."

Gohan felt himself glaring at the blond man. "You know what? I'll go out there and check out what's going on."

"No, you won't," Videl hissed at him. "Remember what I told you about doing moronic things? It wasn't that long ago."

"Someone has to go out there," the youth countered. "And if it has to be a hero that does it, then I guess I'll be that hero."

"Oh no, you don't!" Sharpner shouted, causing both dark-haired men to wince. " _I'm_ the hero here! I'll be the one to do hero things!"

And despite this proclamation, Sharpner made no move to get out of the carriage. After awhile, Videl prodded, "Well?"

"I'm gonna do it, just give me a minute."

"GET OUT!" Videl roared, lunging at the blond. Kicking open the door to the carriage, the bounty hunter grabbed the annoying man and threw him out of it, slamming the door shut soon after. "Finally," the lad huffed as he resettled himself in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. Seeing nothing else for him to do, Gohan just leaned back on the bench and waited for Sharpner to come back.

As it turned out, he didn't have to wait. There were some shuffling noises coupled with some grumbling, obviously from Sharpner. He was probably getting back to his feet, which explained the other sounds. A frown soon appeared on the dark-haired youth's face when Sharpner went completely silent.

That's when he heard it. It was a low, kindly voice, or so Gohan thought it sounded. It wasn't much, but he could clearly hear what it said.

"Hi."

A loud girlish shriek soon followed.

* * *

To Zerolink100: Wrong story, dude lol.

To Guest: Kinda drawing a blank as to who you are lol. You know my name, but I don't know yours.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	8. Dry Village

It appears the story alert system has been fixed. Hopefully it stays that way for the foreseeable future.

* * *

"It was just staring at me with these eyes, man," Sharpner blabbered into Gohan's ear. "They were just so empty. So empty."

Gohan resisted the groan that was working its way up his throat and into his mouth. Ever since the cab driver had run off and Sharpner wet his pants, he, Videl, and the hysterical blond had had to walk on foot to the nearest village. Videl had been adamant in not carrying Sharpner—in fact, he advocated just leaving him there as a blubbering mess—but the blond had quickly leapt onto Gohan's back and refused to let go. That pretty much explained why the dark-haired youth was giving another man a piggyback ride.

And as unfortunate as it was, Sharpner had not stopped talking the entire way.

"And did I tell you about his skin?" the self-proclaimed hero asked, not losing the hysterical tone in his voice in the slightest. "It was like looking into—"

"The blackest of voids, yes, you've told us," Gohan interrupted, uncharacteristically snappish. Having a constant voice in your ear could do that to a person and Gohan had the slightest notion that this was how Videl felt when he encountered something he considered idiotic. "Now, could you get off my back? You're heavy."

"And let that thing get me?" Sharpner exclaimed loudly, jerking his head up into the air and nearly throwing off the dark-haired man's balance. "Uh uh, no way! Not gonna happen!"

"You're just being lazy," Videl retorted irritably.

" _You_ weren't the one to see that monster," Sharpner shot back. "I was. I saw it all and I tell you, it was horrible!"

"And that's what heroes do," came another retort, again from Videl. "They face horrible things on a daily basis, not cry like a frightened child on another man's back. It's not all damsels-in-distress and glory, ya know."

Sharpner's face twisted into one of bewilderment. "What are you talking about? Of course being a hero is glory and hot babes. I'm a hero; I would know."

Gohan came to a stop, letting out a loud pant. "I can't…go on…any further."

Sharpner's head whipped around, his long blond hair slapping the youth on the side of his face. "You can't stop here! This is monster country! Keep moving, Arch Enemy! This is all your fault for getting us into this situation!"

"But you're the one stalking him all over the place," Videl countered. "You can't blame him for you going into dangerous territory."

"Of course I can. Heroes don't stalk people after all. They just follow them around."

"That is stalking, Sharpner," Gohan said, his breath slowly coming back.

"No, it isn't."

"Yes, it—"

"No it isn't."

Gohan bowed his head a little, his eyes closing from the headache that was forming behind his temples. "I'm not going to argue about this with you."

"Good, because you know you're wrong."

Suddenly, Gohan felt Sharpner jerk to aside, finally throwing him off his balance and causing the two of them to crash to the ground. Grunting loudly, the youth was hardly aware that the blond wasn't gripping him anymore until smaller hands grabbed his arm and hauled him onto his feet. "You're welcome," he heard Videl say, his hands dusting him off.

"Owwww," Sharpner began to whine again. "You didn't have to punch me."

"I didn't," Videl agreed before he began pushing Gohan further down the dirt path. "But you were asking for it."

It was then that Sharpner became aware that the two dark-haired people were leaving him. "Hey, you can't leave me by myself!" Immediately, he was scrambling back onto his feet. "Arch Enemy, carry me on your back!"

A horrified look crawled onto Gohan's face. No more, he couldn't do it. He had already carried this guy for who knows how far and his body was beginning to protest the strain. He had to do something. Pointing back the way they came, he shouted "Hey, isn't that the monster you were talking about?"

Sharpner froze before swinging around, looking frantically for his monster. "Where is it? Where is it!" he shouted panicky.

Taking that distraction, Gohan began running in the opposite direction, trying to put as much distance between him and that idiotic blond. A second pair of footsteps alerted him to another person running with him—Videl. "Now you're talking," the lad complimented.

Unfortunately, Sharpner didn't stay as distracted as hoped as they soon heard him yell, "Hey, don't run away! Come back!"

As much as Gohan wanted to keep running, he could already feel his body losing its power. He was slowing down and it was only a matter of time before that blond guy caught up with him and tried to ride him again. Nothing could stop that, noth—

"Hey, I see a village," Videl suddenly said, ripping Gohan out of his dire musing. As luck would have it, the bounty hunter was right. It wasn't too far away, slowly growing larger the longer the two ran. Maybe, just maybe they could lose Sharpner there! Yes!

Fortunately, it didn't take long to get to the village. However, when they got there, Gohan had to say the place looked like a dump. Instead of well-organized wooden buildings, most of the structures were made of long yellow grass and hey. The ground itself looked muddy, as if it had just recently rained there. In fact, some of the roads leading away from the village were muddy, which was odd considering most of the area looked like it could use a hard rain. All in all, the place looked like a dump.

And unfortunately, Sharpner had managed to catch up with them, screaming his head off. "I've got you now!"

Despite how tired he felt and the labored pants of his breathing, Gohan remained calmed before he took one step to a side. A second later, Sharpner came leaping by him, arms extended out in front of him as his hair flowed behind him. Gravity decided to work on him then, causing the blond to fall to the muddy ground, landing with a loud splat as the front of his body sunk into the wet earth.

"Nicely done," Videl congratulated.

Though it was slightly amusing to see Sharpner lying in the mud, unmoving and oblivious to the rest of the world, Gohan felt that something was watching him. Looking around, he found dirty-looking villagers staring at the three of them.

Videl also noticed this as he commented, "They look as if they haven't seen a loudmouth make a nuisance of himself."

"Actually, we have."

Simultaneously, the two dark-haired youths turned to face the source of the voice, finding a darkly tan man. He was a tall, well-built guy, or so his partially bare chest showed. The robe he wore only covered his left shoulder and descended down to below his right arm.

"And you are?" Videl asked.

"I am Nam, the village chief of Dry Village," he answered, tilting his turban-covered head down in a form of greeting. The motion seemed to cover the red dot that was situated on his forehead, but uncovered it once his head moved back up.

"Dry?" Gohan quested as he looked about the area. "It doesn't look that dry to me."

Videl jerked his head over to him and glared. "Quiet! That's very rude," he reprimanded.

Nam though, didn't seem the least bit offended. "You're friend is right. As of late, our village is quite the opposite of its name."

Letting his curiosity get the better of him, Gohan asked, "So what happened? Did you get rain recently?"

Although his dark eyes had been kind, they soon hardened as the chief's face became more severe. "We are cursed."

A murmur ripped through the surrounding villagers, many of which held similar stricken expressions. Taking note of this, Gohan pressed, "Maybe we can help out?"

Though strained, Nam gave a thin smile to the youth. "I highly doubt you could, but we appreciate your concern. It is not your problem."

"At least tell us the story. That can't hurt."

Nam seemed to consider this before nodding his acceptance. "Very well. For the longest time, Dry Village had fallen under a severe drought. We were very well what our name was. In fact, this region typically has droughts, but they were always manageable. However, our more recent one was beginning to harm our village."

Gohan nodded his head, hoping to encourage the man. "What then?"

"A man from our village was chosen to seek out help. As he has told us, he searched all over the lands, not finding any help until he reached the mountains." At this Nam paused as his eyes seemed to glaze over. "Many of us have never seen the mountains."

A silence fell over everyone, leaving Gohan and Videl to stand their awkwardly, waiting for the village chief to continue with his story. It wasn't until the smaller boy coughed uncomfortably that Nam was snapped back into the present and continued. "As I was saying, the man reached the mountains, but according to him these were no ordinary mountains.

"He said there were strange things there, strange creatures, and even stranger caves. In fact, there was one with neon lights that mentioned a powerful weapon called the Zeta Sword, but we later found out it was merely a scam by those Korin people."

Videl suddenly began coughing harder. "Imagine that," he said uneasily.

"However, that wasn't the start of our problems," Nam continued, his voice growing more serious. "The man found another cave that contained a magical lamp. Believing it to be our salvation, he brought it back to the village and unleashed a terrible creature that has haunted us to this day."

With a wave of his hand, he indicated the ground that Sharpner still laid on—something that made Gohan wonder if he was ever going to come up for air. "The creature held terrible power and when we asked for it to send rain, it used its power to flood our village. We are still recovering from that. We have tried many a time to rid ourselves of this menace, yet it will not go away. We have come to find that the only way to be done with this creature is for the man that unleashed it to seal it back in the lamp."

Videl raised an eyebrow at that. "And how did you find that out?"

"The creature told us," Nam replied simply.

"Oh. Then where is this guy of yours?"

Nam bowed his head forlornly. "He was swept away by the flood, never to be seen again. That is why we are still haunted by the creature."

Gohan looked to Videl urgently. "We have to help these people."

The bounty hunter froze at that proclamation. "What? No, didn't you hear this guy? We can't help them even if we wanted to."

"We can at least try."

"Need I remind you that you're not in the best of situations? We need to keep moving, period."

Gohan stared at Videl before turning away from him and speaking to Nam. "I'll do everything I can to help."

Nam shrugged his shoulders. "You can try, but do not think you will succeed."

Gohan hardened his resolve. "At least trying is better than not doing anything at all. Now tell me what this creature looks like."

Nam closed his eyes for a moment, shuddering from his recollection, and then said, "It is a creature with empty eyes. It wears bizarre clothes that cover its dark skin, skin so dark that—"

Suddenly, Sharpner's arms pried themselves out of the mud before they came back down, pushing his hands into the soften earth. Pushing down, the blond managed to force himself up, revealing his entire face and chest covered with brown mud. Turning his head, he looked right at Nam and finished, "It was like looking into the blackest of voids!"

A hush fell over the village upon Sharpner's words. "You…you've seen it?" Nam questioned carefully.

"Oh, I saw it. I saw it real good!" the blond immediately proclaimed, hopping onto his feet, completely unaware as he seemed sunk into the mud somewhat. "It was an evil I haven't seen since…since…since that time I met my arch enemy!"

Simultaneously, Gohan and Videl pressed one of their hands onto their faces. "Sharpner, shut it," the bounty hunter said, frustration laced in his voice.

"Hey, you can't tell a hero to shut up!" Sharpner protested.

Unfortunately, the villagers heard that proclamation, even though you would have been hard-pressed to find someone that didn't considering the blond man had shouted it at the top of his lungs. "You're a hero?" Nam asked, excitement creeping into his voice.

Immediately ignoring Videl, Sharpner preened towards the village chief. "I'm not _a_ hero, I'm _the_ hero."

"That's great!" Nam exclaimed as an excited murmur raced throughout the crowd. "You can help rid us of the creature!"

Sharpner's face immediately dropped at that. "Wait, what? I…I mean…"

"Oh, this is gonna be good," Videl murmured to Gohan. The youth, in turn, found himself agreeing with that assessment. It was gonna be interesting to see the blond try and dig himself out of this mess.

"You're the first hero that has entered our village," Nam continued unabated. "And with the loss of our young warrior, we need a hero to save us all! Quickly now! Journey forth into the wilderness and track down that menace. Show it what a hero is like!"

"Now wait just a minute, I—"

"There's no time to lose! Every minute you are here is another minute that creature is out there doing bad things! Make haste young hero!"

"I don't think that's such a good idea…"

Nam's eyes narrowed at that, followed by the other villagers doing the same thing. "Why do you not seek the creature out and defeat it? Is it possible you have deceived us and are not a hero?"

That fired up the blond as he exclaimed "Of course, I'm a hero! It's just that…I…uhhh…" At this his eyes fell upon Gohan and Videl. "I need my sidekicks! That's right! No self-respecting hero goes out to do battle without their disposable sidekicks!"

"Oh no, we are not his sidekicks," Videl immediately fired back in protest. "We—"

"Of course!" Nam interrupted, "You need to have sidekicks that hold great potential of dying, all just to show how dangerous the situation is! I apologize for ever doubting you."

"Hey, don't listen to him!" Videl shouted, finally loud enough to get everyone's attention. "We're not with this guy! He's all on his own!"

"But you entered the village together," one of the village people pointed out.

"That's because he's been following us around like a creepy stalker."

For a moment, the crowd looked astonished at that revelation, at least until someone pointed out, "Heroes don't stalk people! They just follow them around!"

For the third time that day, Videl face-palmed himself. "Oh damn it all." Then with renewed vigor, the bounty hunter dropped his hand from his face and clearly declared "For the last time, he—" at this the lad pointed at Gohan, "—and I are _not_ going out there with that—" this time he pointed at Sharpner, "—lame excuse for a hero. And that's final!"

* * *

"I don't think they listened to you," Gohan said.

"Oh, shut up," Videl grumbled.

They were back out in that dull countryside, walking back to the carriage they had abandoned. Despite Videl's rants and declarations, the villagers had cornered him and forced him to accompany their new hero, Sharpner. Gohan, to his credit, knew a losing battle better than the bounty hunter and had accepted the mission.

Unfortunately, Sharpner was around them and he had been talking the entire way; the dark-haired men had taken to ignoring him so the blond's words had become background noise. Usually it was about his greatness and how he fully expected Gohan to become an expendable meat shield should the occasion arise. For some reason, he didn't have the same thoughts for Videl. Secretly, Gohan had the feeling that the blond guy had some unorthodox feelings towards the smaller guy. Never in his life had the dark-haired youth thought he'd be traveling with one gay person, much less two.

"So where do we find this monster?" Gohan asked as he raised his arms up, placing his hands on the back of his head as his fingers entwined with each other. "This is a pretty big place to go looking for it."

"I'm glad you asked that," Sharpner answered, holding a finger up for some odd reason. "I've been working on a plan this entire time—"

"You haven't had time to think of one since you've just been talking about yourself," Videl grumbled.

Sharpner didn't seem to hear that as he talked over the lad's words. "And I've come up with a brilliant strategy. We're gonna put a box out in the middle of the road and use a stick to tilt it up. We then put some bait beneath the box and when this monster comes out for it, he'll knock the stick down and the box will fall on him. Genius if I don't say so myself."

Videl let out a loud groan as he slapped his hand against his forehead. Meanwhile, Gohan asked, "So what's the bait?"

A sinister smirk appeared on the blond's face. "You, of course."

"Oh no, Gohan is not the bait," Videl suddenly argued, finally entering the conversation. "He's too important to get mauled by some monster that _you're_ trying to hunt down. If anyone should be the bait for that childish plan of yours, it's you."

"Uh, no," Sharpner said, talking as if Videl were someone below his intellect. A near impossibility to be sure, but that was his tone. "I'm the hero and heroes aren't bait. This is my plan and if I say it's Sidekick, it's Sidekick."

"But my name is Gohan, not Sidekick," Gohan pointed out.

"Shut up, Sidekick. Now, first thing's first: we need to find a box and a stick."

Gohan stared at the blond as he stood in an exaggerated thinking pose, namely rubbing his chin and tilting his head back to look towards the sky. With a sigh, the dark-haired youth said, "I think I liked it better when he called me Arch Enemy."

"He should be calling you by your real name by now," Videl growled. "It's just flat out disrespectful that he hasn't learned your name after all this time."

Gohan frowned at that. "But I've only known him for a few months and only minutes at a time."

Videl just rolled his eyes. "I just want this dumb thing over with. The sooner we get out of here and away from _him_ , the better I'll feel."

"Sidekick, what are you doing just standing around and talking?" Sharpner demanded then, looking at him in disbelief. "Go find a box already!"

"How big of a box would you like?" a voice asked.

Sharpner whipped his head around and snapped, "I wasn't talking to you." Turning back around, he was about to say something else when he stopped in mid-motion, his mouth hanging wide open and his eyes bulging. It was quite a sight, Gohan had to admit. The blond then slid his eyes to a side before slowly turning around.

Curious, Gohan looked over the blond man's shoulder and saw a very odd man. Well, to call it a man would be a stretch. It was short and squatty, its skin the color of coal. The skin stood in contrast to the white pants and turban on its head, never mind the red sash around its waist.

It started off low. Then with a rising crescendo, a high-pitch scream tore out of Sharpner's mouth before he launched himself at Gohan, running around him and hiding being the dark-haired youth's back. "That's it!" he screamed wildly. "That's the monster!"

Gohan and Videl stared at the dark-skinned man for a moment. "Well, he does have dark skin," Gohan acknowledged.

"And his eyes look a bit vacant," Videl added.

Turning his attention to the man's eyes, Gohan had to agree with that statement. "So this is the monster we're looking for."

"Damn it, yes it is!" Sharpner shouted from behind him. "I already told you that! Now don't move an inch, Meat Shield!"

The dark-haired youth grimaced at that. "Now I'm Meat Shield. Lovely."

"So you were looking for me," the dark man said pleasantly. "How may Popo be of service?"

"Kill it!" Sharpner continued to shriek. "Kill it with fire!"

Popo's head slightly tilted towards the blond, who cowered further behind Gohan. "Kill what, Sir?"

"You! I want you to die!"

Despite the cry, Popo's red lips remained smiling as he calmly replied, "I'm sorry, I cannot do that. You need to rephrase your request in the form of a wish."

"A wish?" Videl perked up, looking questioningly at Popo. "Are you some kind of genie?"

"I am."

"This is starting to make sense," the bounty hunter groaned then. "Nam's people called upon Popo here and wished him to get rid of the drought, but they must've phrased their wish wrong. Like instead of making it rain, they must've wished for the whole area to be flooded."

"How do you wish to be flooded though?" Gohan inquired. "I don't know too many people that want floods."

"It's the phrasing," Videl explained. "Like, I wish—" At this, the lad stopped, eyeing Popo as the genie leaned towards him, looking quite eager. "I mean, I want you to flood the area with rain. See? It's all in the wording."

Gohan nodded his head in understanding. However, before he could reply, Sharpner jumped in with something other than screams. "So I could wish for a large set of boobs then, right? Like on you?"

Videl glared at the blond, who returned it with a sly look. "Don't you—"

"It is done."

All three of them snapped their heads towards Popo, who was still looking at them pleasantly. Gohan blinked his eyes owlishly in disbelief. His brain was having a hard time accepting that one man would wish for another man to have breasts. It just didn't make any sense. And yet, Sharpner was staring right at Videl, hungrily looking at his chest. And as for Videl, he was looking from Popo to his chest and back in horror. Gohan couldn't say he blamed him for that.

And yet, nothing happened. There was no slow swelling and emergence of boobs, nor just a sudden appearance. Videl just remained like himself. It took several seconds before any of them realized nothing was going to happen.

"Hey, what gives?" Sharpner complained, glaring at the genie. "Where are the boobs?" All the while, Videl was scowling towards him.

Popo merely answered "But they are here."

"They are? I don't see them!"

Gohan was just turning his head to look at the angry blond, much like one would look at a petulant child. It was because of this that he found at that Popo had indeed fulfilled the wish. "Um, Sharpner?"

"What do you want, Arch Enemy? Can't you see we have a booby emergency here?" the man snapped back.

 _Back to Arch Enemy now? Make up your mind!_ As his mood soured, Gohan didn't feel the least bit guilty as he said, "You have boobs."

Sharpner looked affronted by this. "I knew you were low, Arch Enemy, but I didn't realize how low. How dare you accuse me of man-boobs! I'll have you know I have the firmest set of pecs in all of the kingdoms!" To emphasis this, he pounded his chest with his fist.

The blond immediately cringed as he exclaimed, "Ow!" Looking down, the self-proclaimed hero saw his hand had hit a rather large breast, one that extended from his chest. "My pecs!" he cried out in horror. "My glorious pecs! They're man-boobs!"

"Wow, really let yourself go there, Sharpner," Videl said sarcastically. "Oh wait, you wished for them, you idiot!"

"On you!" the blond shot back angrily. "I wished for you to—"

"No, _you_ said you wanted a big pair of tits," the bounty hunter interrupted. "You only tag me on at the end, _after_ you ended the wish. So naturally the genie gave them to you."

Sharpner's mouth opened and closed soundlessly, his brain failing him as it tried to come back with a reply. "But…but…" he began to sputter out before pitifully falling back to, "my pecs!"

A mirthful smirk appeared on Videl's mouth as he watched the blond's hysterics. "Tell you what, why don't you leave the wishing to me, alright? That way you can't accidentally turn yourself into a girl, or something."

Sharpner instantly went silent. Then in a voice so soft, Gohan wasn't even sure he heard him right, the man said, "But I like Mini-Sharpner where he is."

"All the more reason to be quiet," Videl said, pouncing on the blond's meekness. "Now," he continued, turning to Popo, "I have a couple questions for you."

"I will do my best to answer them," Popo answered nicely.

"Okay, some of the people around here are scared of you," the bounty hunter began bluntly. "So what I want to know is if there is a way for you to leave them alone."

This didn't even seem to affect the genie's mood, despite the way he shook his head in the negative. "That is not possible as the conditions for releasing me have not been fulfilled."

"What are these conditions?" Gohan asked, joining the conversation.

"Oh, nothing too serious. The person who released me must use the allotted wishes blessed upon him. Once that is done, I will return to the lamp and stay there until the next person releases me."

"This is going to be easier than I thought," Videl commented with surprise. Then his mood swung in the other direction. "Wait, you mean you need the very person that released you and not so random person you meet?"

"That is correct."

"Ugh, who knows where that guy is now," the bounty hunter groaned.

"What if he died?" Gohan inquired. Hopefully if they asked enough questions, they could find some sort of loophole. "Or if there was some way that he wasn't capable of making his wishes?"

Popo paused at that, considering the question. "That would be unprecedented," he acknowledged slowly. "But if it were to happen, then I suppose someone would need to take his place."

Videl immediately seized on that. "Well, I hate to tell you this, but the guy who let you out of your lamp died. He was drowned in that flood you caused."

That seemed to startle the genie. "Oh…oh my. That is terrible."

"Yeah, tragic. So perhaps you can let us finish off the guys wishes, okay? So we can finish off your services and all."

Popo nodded his head in agreement. "I believe that would be acceptable."

"Great. And how many wishes are left?"

"Two."

"Okay." Videl then paused for a moment as he began to consider his words. Gohan remained quiet at this, deferring to the bounty hunter. He seemed to have a better grasp of this wish thing and the dark-haired youth felt he would only make things worse if he opened his mouth.

"Alright," the bounty hunter began, taking a breath before he carefully worded his next words. "I wish that you would return Dry Village to the way it was before you flooded it with rain water, including the people."

Popo nodded his head and then remained still for a few moments. "It is done."

Gohan let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. Glancing around, he didn't see anything out of the norm, not that he knew what was considered normal around here. But since this place wasn't on fire or dramatically changing, he guessed the wish had been done correctly.

"Hey, my pecs are back!"

He tried. He really, really tried, but the young man couldn't help himself as he turned his head to look at Sharpner. The breasts that had been hanging from his chest had vanished, his body back to the way it was. Heck, the blond man was busy flexing them, making sure they were back to the way they were. Not a sight he really wanted to see.

"Not going to ask," Videl muttered. Obviously, he too saw the "hero's" show and wanted no part of it. While Gohan did wonder why the lad's wish affected Sharpner, he was all too willing to pin it on some weird, roundabout explanation that tied into the wish.

Instead, he asked, "So what do we do with the third wish?"

Videl went thoughtful at this. "I don't really know," he admitted. "We did what we came here for after all."

"Hey, I have a wish," Sharpner piped in.

It was instantaneous. If Gohan didn't know any better, he would have said it was a reflex. Due to the blond's enthusiasm, he had taken a step towards the bounty hunter, putting him within arm's distance behind Videl. With one hand, the lad snapped it up, his hand balled into a fist and his arm bent at the elbow. The back of the fist slammed into Sharpner's face, snapping his head back, and causing him to fall to the ground. "Can't have it," Videl growled lowly.

 _Yeeeeeeah…that was probably for the best._ "Maybe we could wish to be taken to our destination?"

Videl perked up at that. "Hey, that's a good idea. Okay genie, I wish—"

"It is done," Popo interrupted.

That caused Videl to stare at the genie, blinking owlishly at him. "But I didn't make the—"

That was when Popo disappeared, along with the entire dried-up area. In its place was a sandy beach with a large body of water stretching out towards the horizon. A slight breeze was blowing by, kicking up some of the sand as the tide rolled in.

"—wish."

The two dark-haired men stayed silent for what felt like forever. Gohan felt confused by the sudden change, wondering how they had gotten here. That all disappeared when an angered growl began rumbling out of Videl.

"Oh, that's just _perfect_!" the bounty hunter shouted. Whipping around, he began jabbing a finger at the dark-haired youth's face. "You just wished us to the freaking ocean, you moron! We're trying to get to Monkey territory, not stay in the farthest reaches of Turtle land! We're too damn far south!"

"Umm…sorry?"

"What did I say, huh? I said you had to be careful with the way you word things. That I would be making the wishes."

Gohan didn't like the bounty hunter berating him. It was an accident, okay? He hadn't meant for this to happen. Besides, they had been heading south too, so Popo had only logically sent them further down that direction. "Hey, at least we put some distance between us and those other bounty hunters."

That didn't placate the lad at all. "That doesn't mean anything if everyone everywhere is looking for you."

"And where was I last sighted? Around the Ribbon-Monkey border," Gohan shot back with annoyance. "So everyone is heading that way to either chase me, or head me off. None of them would expect me to be this far south already."

"It isn't just us being south," Videl growled back. "If you ever looked at a map, you'd know that the ocean is in the south _west_ region of the Turtle lands. We're trying to go _east_."

"Oh." Raising a hand, he began scratching the back of his head. "Still, they wouldn't expect me to be all the way out here."

Gohan could see that Videl was grounding his teeth as he stared with fury. "Just…stop talking."

Scowling, the dark-haired youth looked into the sky, taking note of where the sun was. _A little past noon._ Turning his back to Videl, began walking along the sandy dunes, heading away from the bounty hunter.

"And where do you think _you're_ going?"

"I'm going east," he shouted back, not even bothering to look over his shoulder. "That's the way to Monkey lands."

It may have been inconvenient, but to Gohan there was a nice silver lining. He was in such a remote area that no one would expect him to be out here and that would throw off his scent to anyone that had been following him for the last few days. In his book, that was a good thing. If Videl couldn't see that, then he didn't have to keep following him. There wasn't anything binding them together after all.

* * *

To Zerolink100: There's plenty of story to go, this is true.

To ThatGuest: Not offended, just surprised. Most people stick with the pen name until later. You can call me Ryan if you like. As far as the hiatus, it's because I've been invested in my own Batman/Justice League universe. This story was put on the back-burner many times because of it. Not sure if MVS will be back; life happened lol. New home, kids, job, that sort of stuff. Tends to make you step away from writing.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	9. The Bunny Harem

Today I've got a treat for all of you. A guest writer wrote the majority of this chapter and I'm sure y'all can guess who. I've been sitting on this chapter for awhile now, but now I present it for your reading pleasure. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the impeccable writing of Ms. Videl Son. Enjoy!

* * *

The sun was setting, casting the area in an orange glow. The air was quite humid, so the day had felt hotter than it probably was. Still, the fact that it was sunset wouldn't cool things down at all. That was just how things were when near the ocean.

However, Gohan was really regretting that he had wished him and Videl to that beach. Had he known he would be sweating his butt off every day, he might have wished for a cooler place, or at least one that wasn't so persistent in being uncomfortably hot. Though he would have liked to complain about his discomfort, he held his tongue in check mostly because of Videl. The bounty hunter was still not happy with him about being sent in the wrong direction, so any comment Gohan could have made about where they were would have resulted in a rebuke. So he kept quiet and hoped they got to another region soon.

The dark-haired men had left the sand-covered beaches days ago, trading it in for groves of palm trees and large, leafy plants. Some had been quite beautiful until you realized that some of the more exotic color patterns of the plants meant they were poisonous. Heck, there had even been plants that had leaves that resembled mouths—mouths that would close the moment some unlucky creature touched them and were subsequently trapped.

Yeah, they didn't stay around those plants for very long.

Currently, the two of them were taking a rest by a very large, very colorful bush. The bush itself had very large, wide leaves with an interesting pattern of orange and red stretching form the middle of each leaf and into the stem of the plant. The normal green of the plant extended out from the pattern and covered the edges of the leaves.

Though he would have liked to make conversation, Gohan kept quiet as he looked towards Videl, who looked as if he would drift off into sleep any time soon. That was another problem with this weather: it made them both quite lethargic. It was as if neither of them had the energy to keep going. If they didn't find some cooler weather, Gohan was sure they wouldn't be leaving this place any time soon.

"Alright, I think we've stayed here long enough," Videl suddenly said, breaking the silence between them. "Let's get going."

Lazily, Gohan pushed himself onto his feet, swaying a bit as his balance took its time in helping him stay upright. His feet sank slightly into the ground, but that was due to the soil being composed mostly of sand than mud. How an entire jungle could grow through sand was beyond his comprehension, but it was of very little concern at the moment. "Do you know where we are?" he asked. "I don't recognize this area."

"Can't quite say I do," the bounty hunter said before directing a glare at him, "though I wouldn't have to figure that out if it wasn't for a certain someone making us take the long way around."

See what he meant?

With his back to the sun, Videl began walking once more, Gohan trailing him soon after. "You know, if we go a little ways north, we might be able to get to cooler temperatures," the young man suggested.

"How would you know that?" the lad shot back grumpily, "you've never been here before. You can't say it'll get less hot if we do."

The dark-haired youth sighed. "It was just a suggestion."

"Well, perhaps you should keep them to yourself." Coming to a stop, which caused the youth to stop as well, the bounty hunter began shooting daggers at Gohan with his eyes. "After the way your last suggestion went, we might end up right back where we started with you in a freaking prison!"

As much as Gohan wanted to defend himself, he just sighed and returned to being silent. Was it too much to ask for a little conversation without a snarky comment about how he screwed up? As they began walking once more, the youth muttered under his breath "Where's that white rabbit when I need it?"

"What was that?" Videl suddenly asked, looking to him. "What white rabbit?"

Gohan shrugged his shoulders. "Why do you want to know?"

The bounty hunter snorted at that. "Because regular people don't mention random animals and it's not like we have anything else to do."

 _Oh, now you want to talk_. Though a little annoyed, the young man didn't let that feeling get in the way of having an actual conversation. "I have some weird dreams," he began as he stared out in front of him, a glazed look appearing on his face. "And usually there's this white rabbit leading me around."

"When are dreams not weird?" Videl retorted. "So what all happens in that dream of yours?"

Gohan shrugged his shoulders. "Can't really say. It's more like I have small snippets of it and then forget about it when I wake up. I only remember how bizarre it was and maybe one or two things that really stuck out. The rabbit's just one thing."

"What else do you remember?"

The dark-haired youth remained quiet for a moment as he considered that question. "Falling," he eventually answered. "And at another point climbing. It's really hard to keep it straight."

"Well, obviously you're able to remember the rabbit. Where was it taking it you?"

Another silence fell on them before Gohan answered "This light. It kept going there, but I have no idea why. It was warm and inviting; you just wanted to go into it; kinda like that light up ahead."

Videl's head perked up at that as he snapped his head forward. "Light? Where?"

Far up ahead of the two was a small light. With all the plant-life around, it made it quite difficult to see, but a small gap between the leaves allowed one beam to reach their line of sight. It was small and high off the ground. Again, due to all the plants in front of them, there was just no way to tell what the source of it was.

"We need to avoid it," Videl said after awhile. "There's no telling what's causing it other than people."

"And we don't know if those are good or bad people," Gohan finished.

"You're learning. Good boy."

That irritated feeling came back to the youth as he allowed it to show on his face. "They're right in our way though. We're gonna have to circle it if we want to avoid it."

A grimace appeared on the lad's face. "You're right," he acknowledged. "But there's no telling how far we'd have to go just to get around it. Looks like we're going to have to do some recon."

Gohan turned his head to look at the shorter man. "You mean go up there and find out what it is."

"Yes, Gohan, that's exactly what I mean."

Seeing no reason to argue, Gohan began walking towards the light, Videl right at his side. They had to work their way through the vegetation, but eventually they reached the end of the little jungle they had been wandering around and found where the light was coming from. That turned out to be the side of a very large mansion. From their hiding spot by a large bush, they could see one of the upper-storied rooms was lit up. A look to the left and right didn't offer much in determining where the front and back of the mansion were.

"Who would build such a large house out here?" Gohan wondered out loud as he stared at the building.

"Someone rich," Videl muttered back. "We must've stumbled onto some lord's land. We're gonna have to be really careful if we want to avoid being detected."

"So go back the way we came and then try to circle the place?"

"Yeah," Videl replied as he began to slowly back up, "just be careful that you don't—"

A loud snapping sound cut through the air, causing both men to fall into an anxious silence. Gohan's eyes flickering from side to side, trying to find the source of the sound and found nothing. That only led to him feeling more nervous as he searched more frantically.

Eventually, the young man found himself looking to Videl and seeing the bounty hunter staring down at his foot. Beneath his boot was a stick, broken from Videl stepping on it. Gohan let out a relieved sigh. Considering that no one was rushing up because of the sound, it was safe to say that no one else heard—

A bright light suddenly beamed down on them, causing both men to look to its source, which resulted in both of them covering their faces due to the burning sensation in their eyes. Aww crap, they were spotted.

Then, just to make matters worse, a large racket sounded off from behind them, trapping them between whoever was behind them and the mansion. Needless to say, they were in a bad place.

"Run!" Videl shouted before taking off towards the right side of the house, Gohan chasing him less than a second later. The racket behind them grew louder as voices started shouting. If Gohan wasn't mistaken, the voices sounded a bit feminine.

As they ran, a gap began to grow between the two men. Thanks to Gohan being taller than Videl, his longer legs were able to cover much more ground than the legs the bounty hunter had been cursed with. Arms pumping like pistons, the taller man found himself glancing behind to see who was chasing them and always seeing Videl lagging further and further behind him.

Suddenly, a loud booming sound went off. The next thing either man knew, a ball landed right in front of Videl and embedded itself into the ground. With wide eyes, Videl threw his arms out to either side of him, skidding to a stop before the round object so that he didn't trip on it.

That was when the ball exploded, sending out a large cloud of smoke that blocked Videl from sight. Immediately, Gohan slid to a stop, turning around to go back and help his friend. "Videl!" he shouted out as he began jogging back to the smoke cloud. "Videl! Can you hear me? Are you alright?"

Coils of smoke unfurled around Gohan's ankles as he surged forward toward the point of impact. "Videl!" he called, dusting his vocal chords with dirt and debris as he inhaled to call out to his companion again. "V-Videl!"

Gohan coughed and swiped at the reactionary tears that were obscuring his vision. He was surrounded by the cloud now and could barely see his own hands, much less the form of another person. It was thick like gravy, deep gray-blue in color, smelled overwhelmingly like lavender and weighed heavy against his sweat-dappled skin. Also, he was pretty sure it was full of glitter, which was strongly urging him to sneeze.

"Vi-Vuh – CHOO!" Ah, that was better.

"H-Here..." a second voice, also clearly strained by the smoke, called from somewhere deep within the puffy, sparkly miasma.

Gohan arched an ear in the direction that he thought he'd heard Videl's voice come from and urged him to speak again. "Where are you?"

 _"Over here!"_

Gohan leaned in the opposite direction and invited the auditory cue into his ear canal. Videl was somewhere off to his immediate right. "Just hold still, I'm coming to find you! And keep talking."

The youth, hands outstretched to feel for obstacles, trudged forward slowly in his search for his missing companion. Even as tears leaked from his eyes and trickled down his cheeks until they dripped off the edge of his chin, his nose itching to sneeze again, he maintained concentration against the will of his impulsive body. Videl was sure to be close by and Gohan was determined to find him so that they could both escape what he was now suspecting was a shimmery death trap. Ugh, suffocated by glitter; wouldn't that be an embarrassing way to go?

"Gohan? C-Can you still hear me?" Videl's voice called out, a little to Gohan's left.

Gohan altered his trajectory by a hair's width and responded "I can hear you, Videl. I think I'm getting closer."

"You're closer," Videl agreed, coughing a little.

After three steps more, a dark, lumpy silhouette formed amongst the shifting waves of smoke and glitter. The form looked passably human, but very...oddly shaped. Two arms, two legs, a wide pair of hips, sharp dip to the waist, a curved bust, a head hovering just above the shoulders and—unless he was hallucinating within this cloud of magic—a pair of thick antennae right on top. Did an alien woman somehow get lost in the miasma?

"V-Videl?"

At Gohan's beckoning, the strange silhouette turned in his direction. There was still a thin veil of sparkly cloud between them, but the form was growing clearer with each step the young man took forward. It was only about a yard ahead of him.

The young woman—for even Gohan could tell it was a woman at this short distance—reached out for him just as Videl's voice called out to him "Over here! Gohan, I'm right here!"

"V-Videl...?" Gohan stopped and rubbed at his eyes in hopes of correcting what was surely some kind of mistake. The miasma was surely playing tricks on him. When he opened them again, the woman was exactly the same as before; blurry, but unmistakably female.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, raising her arms to rest her hands against her hips. She tapped her foot against the ground with uncomfortably familiar impatience.

The sparkly smog shifted a bit in the breeze and more of her form was exposed to his sight, though it still looked like she was standing behind a sheet of opaque glass. She was wearing barely anything, but the small swatch of fabric that Gohan could divine through the cloud was a bright baby-blue in color and clung only to the spots most required by basic modesty. Her shoes—black, shiny, and offering only the most precarious balance—were entirely inadequate for the sandy terrain on which they both trod. Even her antennae were not, in fact, antennae at all; they were bunny ears.

Ooh, deja vu.

"Fine, then," the bunny girl said, sending forth one of her feet in Gohan's direction. She wobbled a bit when the heel of her shoe sunk into the soft ground. She grunted a little as she pulled it out and commanded, "Just stay there. _I'll come to you_."

Gohan's two most basic instincts—to fight or to flight—were struggling inside of him as the bunny girl approached, holding him petrified in place. Every inch she drew closer increased the clarity of her features through the rapidly thinning smog. She was much shorter than him, probably about Videl's height, with closely cropped dark hair coiffed into a feminine style that swooped across her forehead. She blew a few strands of her bangs out of her eyes, which were a vivid blue against her pale face and drawn into an intensely familiar scowl.

Up close, her outfit was even more immodest than he'd first thought; it was comprised almost entirely of lace with only a few swatches of satin here or there to hold the pieces together. The top was some sort of corset—laced up from her navel to just below the swell of her bosom—with two cups of crimped fabric held in place over her breasts by a single strand of ribbon tied behind her neck. The bottoms were laughably small and trimmed in the same lacy fabric that made up most of the corset. Everything else except for her feet was entirely bare and available for viewing.

"V...Videl?" Gohan queried tentatively, his eyes straying slowly downward against his more moral inclinations. Oh _gods_ , she was incredible-looking...and he was pretty sure it was actually getting warmer out in this jungle. "I-Is that you?"

The bunny girl tilted her head to the side as if confused by his question. "Yeah, who else would it be?"

"B-b-but you're a g-g-g-g-g-"

Gohan's body was reacting in confusing and shameful ways. It couldn't be Videl! Videl was a boy, not a luscious...sexy...it couldn't be! She had Videl's voice, his face, his mannerisms and personality. Could it be? No! Not unless...if this girl…boy…person was actually Videl, then was he or she the victim of some crazy spell? Had the bomb turned his male companion into a sexy female one? Was it okay to be aroused by someone who used to be a boy, but clearly wasn't anymore? Was this girl even Videl at all or was she just pretending to gain his trust? He really needed to get away from here to think about some things for awhile.

The confused youth stretched one foot backward, and then the other. He had to get the hell out of here.

"What's wrong with you?" the Videl-bunny demanded, her eyes still narrowed and her palms flattened around the curve of her hips. She followed his progress with shorter steps of her own, each footfall nearly causing her breasts to jiggle out of their top and out into the open. "Has the heat fried your brain? Hold still! I am _not_ going to chase you down again."

Gohan took another hasty step backward and away from the sexually-confusing bunny woman. Oh gods, it was _hot_ out here. He'd been dying to complain about the heat for days now, but it was growing downright unbearable now. He could feel sweat pouring down his chin in a great wave. His clothes were beginning to cling tightly onto his body, especially around his groin.

The bunny girl's expression relaxed into one of concern tinged with horror. "You're bleeding!"

"Wh-Where?" Gohan lowered his gaze and discovered that yes, indeed, the entire front of his formerly white shirt was stained a brilliant red. He touched a pair of fingers to his chin and they too became coated in a slick sheen of blood. Come to think of it, Gohan felt a little dizzy...

The girl huffed in an exasperated tone familiar to Videl. "Geeze, not again. Just lean your head forward and don't make any sudden movements. I'll stop the bleeding," the bunny girl said, groping around her midsection as if hoping to tear a tourniquet from her almost nonexistent shirt. As her prodding fingers discovered smooth, plush flesh and the itchy texture of delicate lace, her eyes widened exponentially. They lowered tentatively and observed the strange, skimpy outfit that—barely—covered her body. "What the fu – "

"Freeze!"

Gohan, with blood leaking through the cracks between his fingers, turned toward the direction of the new, commanding voice in the vicinity. It was another bunny girl, this one wearing a pink single-piece body suit and a pair of red-rimmed sunglasses. She was holding a crossbow.

"Shit!" the first bunny girl, who was maybe, maybe not Videl, swore. Gohan returned his gaze to her and discovered that she was looking somewhere behind him. The youth turned in the direction that Videl-bunny's glare indicated and discovered yet _another_ scantily-clad girl wearing rabbit ears, lingerie, and sunglasses, though this one seemed to prefer green. A quick 360 degree survey of their surroundings unveiled more slutty rabbit-women wearing sunglasses and toting weapons, about five in all, not including Videl-bunny.

"F-Friends of yours?" Gohan asked, speaking directly to the blue bunny who claimed to be Videl. Drips of blood were forming a small puddle between his feet.

"Are you insane or just stupid?" Videl-bunny retorted, nostrils flaring open as she snorted her derision. Her eyes—so like the Videl who had hunted him down, tied him up, and dragged him along behind him—narrowed at the presumption. Maybe...augh! This was so hard!

A purple-clad adversary interrupted their whispered conversation by demanding, "Surrender now, trespassers, and we can end this peacefully." As she said this, she unsheathed a long saber that didn't look very peaceful to Gohan. One might even say it was the opposite.

"And if we don't?" Videl-bunny countered, straightening up to her full, if not diminutive, height to glare at the speaker.

Another slut-bunny—this one in an orange tube-top ensemble and sporting a blonde afro—replied "We'll settle this the hard way." Her nunchuk's swirled lazily at her sides as if longing to be used.

Videl-bunny flicked one of her drooping ears into its fully upright position and twisted her lips into a familiar smirk. "Then bring it on, bitches."

So they brought it.

Gohan wailed in an undignified way as the head of a spear wielded by a yellow bunny came within centimeters of his face. Dodging instinctively just in time, it sailed over his forehead and snipped a couple of hairs from the spike that dangled in front of his eyes.

The youth extended his bloodied hands to brace himself as his body descended toward the ground, palms facing downward. Once they connected with the dirt, he utilized his momentum to launch his feet into the air and over his head where they found balance again on the sandy ground. The yellow bunny girl, unable to avoid his flailing feet as they nailed her under her chin, went soaring in the opposite direction until her back and skull collided with the rough bark of a palm tree. She was unconscious by the time she slid back to the jungle floor, her spear yards out of her reach and useless.

Whoops.

Gohan stood upright and pinched his still freely-bleeding nose closed again. Another bunny—a red one with a peep window at her midriff and dark hair pulled into a high ponytail—launched herself at him with a katana grasped firmly within her hands. She swung it at him once, twice—five times before Gohan used his free hand to catch the sword and wrench it away from her. The youth hissed out loud as he felt sharp steel bite into his hand, but he ignored the feeling as he tossed the weapon into the jungle where neither of them could use it. His palm was now bleeding as profusely as his nose, but at least she hadn't gotten anything vital.

With an enraged scream, the red bunny flung a wild punch at his face, which Gohan blocked with the hand that had been previously guarding his bloody nose. When the next punch came he caught that one in his newly injured hand, wincing a little as the sting vibrated through his palm down to his elbow. Sheesh, that _hurt_!

With both of her hands occupied, she was unable to block the swift, if substantially weakened, knee that Gohan embedded into her stomach. The red bunny crumpled to the ground, winded and defeated as she groaned loudly, her arms hugging her midsection.

Gohan, bloodied mess that he was, spun around to locate the maybe-maybe-not-Videl in the fray of warring bunnies. One of the rabbit-women—the purple one—was already out of the fight, leaving her two companions—green and pink—to battle the blue-clad Videl.

Videl-bunny had already discarded her useless high-heeled shoes in favor of fighting in bare feet, which made her much faster and more balanced than her opponents who continued their assault with their stilettos in place. They stumbled and lost their footing as Videl-bunny crouched low and swiped at their ankles, tipping them off-kilter.

Even while fighting, the blue-clad bunny girl bore a striking resemblance to the Videl that Gohan knew and...well, knew. She used Videl's moves to great effectiveness, utilizing her short stature to evade quick attacks and invade the enemy's vital areas. She performed spritely flips and somersaults to throw herself out of her opponent's range. She grappled and wrestled the other bunnies to the ground and forced them to cry uncle in a hard, savage display of overwhelming dominance. If it weren't for the heaving, sweat-dappled breasts and slender, shapely legs—

Damn, his nose sprung another leak. It was time to run before he got all woozy again.

Gohan pinched his nostrils firmly shut and, with only one moment of hesitating regret, launched himself into the tropical forest and away from the bunny battle.

As he made his escape, Videl's voice echoed through the trees, scattering nesting birds into the sky. " _GOHAN! Where the hell are you going?_ "

Gohan skimmed through the forest of palm trees and deadly plants as quickly as his feet would allow, bounding off of man-eating flowers and flinging himself forward from low hanging branches. He had tried swinging from vines, but learned not to pretty quickly; the untrustworthy little bastards weren't always rooted firmly to the trees and they, occasionally, turned out to be snakes in disguise.

And he wasn't afraid to admit that he had screamed like a girl the first time that happened. Well…maybe a little…

He knew that he must be leaving an obvious trail of broken twigs and bloody handprints behind him, but he couldn't be so careful when he was this desperate to get away. If that bunny girl wasn't really Videl—and he certainly had his doubts—then that meant that the real Videl had either gotten away, or been captured by the enemy. Either way, getting as far away from the bunny battle royale back by the castle was his best option. He would find someplace to regroup and ponder all of this confusing new information before heading back to rescue his friend. That was assuming that Videl was still alive, of course, and not that girl he'd abandoned to a hoard of vicious rabbit-women.

 _Augh!_ Between the fight, the blood loss, and conflicting gender identities, Gohan was getting a massively aggressive headache.

Up ahead a few yards, dull orange sunlight showered the jungle floor like pieces of a broken mirror. It seemed that Gohan had found the far edge of the forest, and possibly freedom, but he was wary of this discovery after how the last guiding light had betrayed him. It was entirely possible that an entire slutty-bunny army was on the other side of the tree line and he didn't want to run headlong into that.

Gohan skid to a stop just shy of the first patch of sunlight and inched forward more slowly. His eyes sought the break in the trees and surveyed the land beyond. As far as he could divine, it was an innocent white-sand beach with no enemies at all. Huh, he thought he had left the beach area a long time ago. Guess he was wrong. Taking another look around, he didn't see a single soul anywhere on the virgin sands. He…he was going to risk it!

The youth urged the toe of one of his boots out into the sunny landscape as he swiveled his eyes across the slowly darkening horizon. Not a bunny in sight. So far, so good.

Suddenly, Gohan felt a hard, blunt force collide with the back of his skull just as his body was pitched forward into the fading daylight. He skidded forward a couple of yards, digging a deep trench into the powdery-white sand until his momentum finally gave way to inevitable physics and he collapsed to the ground.

"You stupid _jerk_!"

The confused youth sprang upward and flipped himself over onto his back as Videl's accusatory tone invaded his ears. Squinting in the twilight and blinking grains of sand out of his eyelashes, he could only see a blurry outline approaching him from the darkened tree line. When he rubbed the blood-encrusted sand out of his eyes with the back of his uninjured hand, the curved figure of bunny girl Videl sharpened into a more distinct image. Oh man, she looked pissed.

"How could you just leave me there?" the female Videl demanded, striding across the hot sand in her bare feet. "And I specifically told you that I didn't want to chase you down again! What the hell were you thinking?"

Gohan scooted backward and away from the enraged Videl-bunny. "St-Stay back!" he cried, but she ignored his pleas and continued forward at her brisk pace.

"Do you know how hard it is to follow someone through a jungle in the dark in your bare _feet_? Huh?" she continued as if he hadn't spoken at all. "If any of those prickly barbs turn out to be poisonous, you're sucking the venom out for me! And then you're going to carry me until I heal."

Gohan continued to inch backwards on his butt while Videl-bunny surged forward on her feet at a much quicker pace than he was able to muster. When he felt the cool moisture of wet sand he knew that there wasn't much further he could go.

"Wh-Who are you?" Gohan asked as the waves lapped against his knuckles. He dug his fingers into the damp sand and clenched them tight.

Videl-bunny spitefully kicked some dry sand at him. While Gohan sputtered and coughed, she plopped herself down next to him, facing the ocean, and bathed her tender feet in the surf. "Exactly who I said I was, Stupid."

"B-But you can't be," the male youth countered as his now-female companion leaned back and propped her palms against the sand. While she sighed contentedly, her prominent breasts rose and fell like the waves licking at her tiny little feet. "You're a g-g-girl."

Videl tilted her head to the side so that she could look directly at him. Her bunny ears were missing, probably discarded in the middle of battle. "I've always been a girl. And it's a little insulting that you're _this_ surprised."

Gohan allowed this revelation to stew for a moment before sputtering, "Th-That's not possible! You were a boy just this morning."

Videl allowed her elbows to buckle beneath her so that she could rest flat against the damp sand and closed her eyes against the starlight that was sprinkled across the darkening sky. She sighed again as a particularly strong wave splashed across her legs and sent droplets of saltwater cascading down onto her lacy ensemble, making it even more translucent than it had been previously. If she really was a girl, how could she be so comfortable around him while wearing so little? Didn't women worry about that stuff?

"I dressed like a boy to hunt you because it's easier that way," Videl explained, draping a lazy forearm across her eyes to block out more light as if she intended to fall asleep right where she lay. "It's a pain in the ass to travel as a girl. You're constantly being harassed, or attacked because you look like an easy mark. Besides, I don't need anyone recognizing me."

"Because you're a bounty hunter?" Gohan guessed.

Videl lifted her hand a little so that she could peer at him with one vivid blue eye. She paused a long moment before agreeing, "Yeah, something like that."

"Why didn't you tell me you were a girl?"

Videl shrugged a little and covered her eye back up. "It's not my fault you couldn't tell the difference."

Then something occurred to Gohan. Something baffling. "B-But...that time that you kissed me, near the checkpoint. When I said I wasn't into other men...why didn't you say something then?"

Videl's shoulders shifted against the wet sand in a shrug. They made a soft shh sound as they rose and fell. "I was pissed at you for thinking I was a boy. I guess I wanted you to suffer a little."

Well, that did sound like something she would do. Sure would have saved Gohan a few restless nights if she'd just told him about her true gender identity, though. Who could comfortably sleep next to another man with romantic feelings toward them?

Of course, that still didn't explain everything. "How did you hide it? You're so...so obviously..." Gohan gestured lamely at the steep slopes and curves of her obviously female body, which glowed faintly in the dimming pink and orange light. Even if she could hide the dip of her waistline beneath a baggy shirt, her breasts should have been perfectly obvious no matter what she chose to put on.

Videl's cheeks, if he weren't mistaken, seemed a little rosier when she replied to this question. Maybe it was the fading sunlight. "Bandages. I wrapped them around myself until I was flat in front."

Gohan's mind wandered instantly to memories of his companion's flat and somehow also plush chest that he'd experienced during their earlier adventures. Now that she mentioned it, bandages made perfect sense. Huh.

"A-and you're sure this isn't some kind of magic spell?" Please, gods, don't turn Videl back into a boy. Now that he was getting used to the concept, he preferred her this way. She was much less sexually confusing as a female.

"Positive. I'm all woman, all the time."

"I'll say."

"What?"

"Nothing!" Gohan replied quickly. Videl's accusing blue eye was leering up at him again. "I didn't say anything."

The young man heard his companion shift against the sand and felt his eyes drawn toward the source of the noise. Videl was rolling over onto her right side so that she could face him, eyes uncovered and glistening in the starlight. The more he stared at them, the more he was sure that the four little pinpricks of light in her eyes formed a constellation, though he forgot which one.

The sun was officially gone from the world now, hidden somewhere behind the trees. It smoldered orange and red like the dying embers of a fire and cast a soft, warm glow over the beach, which sparkled on the peaks of the waves and rested gently against the newly discovered curves of Videl's body. She laid on her right side with her face cupped in her palm and her elbow propped against the wet sand while she stared at him with those stars in her eyes. Her breathing seemed to expand and contract with the sounds of the surf beating against the shoreline, completely in sync with their world.

Gohan, feeling more antsy the longer he tried to bring the name of that constellation to mind, lowered his gaze to the sand between them. Videl's free arm was resting in the curvy valley between her hips and her bosom, the hand resting lax against the beach next to his elbow. As he watched, this same hand inched toward him slowly, as if not to frighten him, and the fingers stretched out to tangle in the sleeve of his ruined shirt. They used the fabric for leverage and pulled themselves upward to come to rest against the swell of his forearm. Gohan felt them squeeze gently, the fabric beneath these slender digits crinkling the soft cotton.

The young man lifted his sight and returned it to Videl's face. The four little stars were still twinkling in the surface of her eyes as if promising him a wish if he would only draw a little closer.

When she said his name, it was almost like her lips moved before he heard her voice. "Gohan," it was a soft, familiar whisper, one that his memory struggled to reveal. He thought it might have come from a dream. "I...I know you don't remember, but..."

The motion of her lips was hypnotic. Gohan vaguely understood what they were saying, but his brain wasn't focused on her words. It was concentrating solely on that wish those four little stars were promising him if he just leaned...a little...closer...

" _TRESSPASSERS_!"

Gohan's focus on his newly female companion was broken first by the magically magnified shout, and then by the bright, artificial light that immediately followed. It washed the beach in a strange sharp glow that wasn't quite like daylight, or fire, but very, _very_ bright.

Videl's hand squeezed his arm one last time before it was gone and she was on her feet with the surf lapping around her ankles. He lifted his face to squint at her in the overwhelming light and found her looking toward the source of it, eyes partially-shielded by the shade of her left hand. "Crap. They found us."

Gohan angled his head in the direction that her gaze indicated and, between the dark spots that danced across his vision, he saw an entire battalion of fierce-looking rabbit-women a few hundred yards away down the beach. Most of them in the front were armed with crossbows, but there was no telling what the rest of them further back were carrying. Nothing friendly, that was for sure.

Gohan climbed to his own feet and took his place next to Videl as the bunnies—all equally slutty as the last batch—took aim at their vital areas. Nervously, the young man lifted his arms so that his hands were hovering over his head in surrender. When he glanced to the side, he noted that Videl's were crossed stubbornly beneath her hefty bosom.

"Trespassers," the magically-magnified voice said again. It sounded like it was probably a woman, but it was difficult to tell when it echoed around them like the tolls of an undulating death bell. "You are outnumbered and unarmed. Surrender and you will not be harmed."

"What is this?" Videl shouted, her bare foot tapping against the wet sand in impatience. "Did we stumble across some weird bunny cult? Are you trying to protect the location of your village? Whatever it is, we don't care! We'll happily leave and never come back!"

"This is not acceptable," replied the voice. "We have orders to arrest the trespassers and bring them back to the castle. Surrender yourselves."

"Sorry!" Videl called back, her usual wry smirk forming beneath her nose. "We've kinda got a schedule to keep to and we're running a bit behind. You understand."

"Very well. We will take you by force."

The bespectacled bunnies—who, apparently, didn't remove their sunglasses even at night, which struck Gohan as a tactical mistake—parted to make way for one in particular. She was a spot of darkness in the flood of unbearable light; her stiff, structured corset appeared to be comprised of black leather and her boots, which rose about midway up her thigh, were made of the same. Her blonde hair, which was tied back in a bun so tight that it must have been painful, was the only spot of light on her otherwise dark ensemble. A pair of black bunny ears sprouted from her head as if to undermine the golden hue of her coiffure. On her nose perched the same pair of red-rimmed sunglasses that the rest of her comrades wore and they looked nothing if not comical when compared to the rest of her clothing—if it could be generously described as such.

"Must be the boss character," Videl commented as she lowered her arms to dangle by her sides. Her fingers withdrew into fists as if preparing for use.

"Do you surrender?" the boss bunny demanded again. Her face maintained a strictly controlled neutral expression.

Videl didn't hesitate to answer, "Not for all the rice cakes on the moon."

"Very well," the boss bunny said as she reached behind her back with both hands. When she withdrew them again, she was holding two black coils of what appeared to be leather rope. She flicked both wrists and the coils came unraveled with a sharp snap and came to rest in the sand like a pair of docile snakes at her feet.

This bunny meant business, he was sure of it. It was kind of scary and a little exciting all at once.

With a quickness usually attributed to rabbits, the boss bunny flung herself across the beach in their direction. Videl was only a couple of seconds behind, leaving Gohan's side with a swear word and a powerful launch from her toned legs. They met somewhere close to halfway between the two warring factions with Videl's punch countered by the sharp sting of her opponent's whip.

As a man, Gohan knew that he should probably be the one getting into fights and defending sweet damsels from harm, but he was getting a weird sense of deja vu that told him Videl was usually more often distressing than in distress. Did that make him the girl now?

Gohan shook off that troubling thought and refocused his attention on the battle unfolding before him. Videl was doing a good job of evading the sting of boss bunny's whips—dodging, weaving, ducking, flipping and somersaulting out of their way as they sought her exposed flesh—but she was stuck in a purely defensive mode. With the whips keeping her at bay, Videl couldn't get close enough to her opponent to land any kind of offensive hit. It didn't help at all that the boss bunny was constantly snapping out her whips, a loud crack occurring as each leather weapon reached its apex. Eventually, Videl would tire out and the boss bunny would be able to catch the blue-clad girl in her snare.

But then—!

Videl, starting from a long ways out of range of the cycling strips of leather, ran directly into the frenzied center of battle. The boss bunny remained impassive as she increased the power and speed of her rotations, waiting patiently for her prey to throw itself into her trap.

Gohan's bounty hunter, however, was much smarter than that. Just as she came in range of the whips, she ducked down and utilized the momentum she'd built up to skid herself across the ground and under the strike zone of her enemy's weapons. She was so fast and her opponent so surprised that Videl easily invaded the boss bunny's personal space and, with a single sharp—

A loud crack echoed across the beach as Videl's fist connected with the leathery midsection of her adversary, forcing the boss bunny to double over in pain and breathlessness. Without waiting for her opponent to recover, Videl used her other fist to uppercut the boss bunny under her chin, sending the leather-clad rabbit-woman flying backward. She landed with a loud grunt against the powdery sand.

It wasn't until the boss bunny made no move to get back up did the dark-haired girl relax. "Geez, those things freaking hurt," Videl complained as she flicked insubstantial blood from a small scratch on her left shoulder. Gohan hadn't even been aware she had gotten that wound—or the other ones that nicked up her person—though with the way she fought, it was something easily forgotten. She winced a little as her sandy fingers grated against the tender flesh. "Especially when sand gets in the wound. What a sadist!"

The rest of the bunnies were in quite uproar up ahead while Videl abandoned picking at her injuries and bent down to retrieve the whips that the boss bunny had dropped at the closure of their battle. She kicked the unconscious rabbit-woman onto her front and, in her customary habit of adding insult to injury, used her adversary's own whip to hogtie her arms and legs behind her back.

When the task was completed, Videl rose back onto her feet and dusted the powdery white grains of sand off of her palms. "Better," she commented as she observed the dominated boss bunny. She then lifted her eyes to the rest of the hoard, smiled in that dangerous way that made Gohan tremble, and said, "So, who's next?"

There was a visible shift backwards from the bunnies. Gohan, though amused, couldn't blame them; who besides himself knew better than to cross the bounty hunter known as Videl? He'd spent months running from her because he was smart enough to realize that he did _not_ want her to catch him. Of course, had he known she was a girl, he might have turned himself in and let her do whatever she wanted with him...

Boy, that was a sick thought. He shook his head as if to physically dispel it and returned his mind to more innocent concerns. Like the battalion of sexy warrior bunnies and his voluptuous companion fighting them back in lacy lingerie. A man's wet dream that couldn't only be improved upon if there was a large puddle of mud for them to fight in.

Hmm, now why did that sound familiar?

Videl stood over her dominated foe and glared at any bunny girl who dared even think about breaking away from the crowd to challenge her. Even standing there on the beach in a skimpy outfit with no shoes and bleeding scratches all over her face, arms and legs, the bounty hunter was intimidating. There were no takers.

"You...you..." the boss bunny murmured through a mouthful of sand. Apparently, she had regained consciousness and had something to say about being tied up. "I'm going to..."

Videl used the heel of her bare foot to press her foe's face more firmly into the ground. While the boss bunny coughed and sputtered, the bounty hunter commented, "I know, I know. I'm a bad girl and I need to be punished."

"Hot-cha-cha!" a voice suddenly shouted, one that, no matter how many times he looked around, Gohan couldn't discover the source of. It sounded masculine, a little winded, and increasingly excited. "That is what I am talking about, Girlie! Why did you not come back to visit old Roshi sooner? He would have welcomed you with open arms!"

Videl's face drew into a grimace at the introduction of the new voice. "Ugh, I should have known," she muttered, sounding as if she were reprimanding herself. Then in a louder voice, she called out, "I should've have known you were behind this, you sick old man! Get out here and show yourself!"

A cloud of smoke instantly bloomed in front of her and Gohan—now extremely wary of mysterious smelly clouds full of glitter and magic—lurched forward to pull her back. He wrapped both arms around her upper torso and, with a jerk that couldn't be gentle under the circumstances, pulled Videl bodily away from the glittering miasma. No telling what might happen if they got caught in that stuff again. Worst case scenario, Videl would turn back into a boy—or actually into one...whichever—and Gohan didn't think he was strong enough to handle another gender switcheroo.

"Ho ho ho...," laughed the voice. "I must say, that outfit fits you. If I had known you were still interested in joining my bunny guard, all you had to do was ask."

In his embrace, Gohan could feel Videl trembling in rage. Her face was twisted to show her disgust. "Only a brain dead half-wit would want to join your slut brigade!"

A figured appeared through the smoke, though still shrouded by it. The person didn't seem at all taken back by that outburst. "Oh, I am sure we can find some way to convince you; say a moonlit stroll on the beach followed by a candlelight dinner. In my bed chambers. You can be the table."

Instinctively, Gohan turned his body around, placing himself between the figure and Videl. This Roshi fellow's words were starting to trouble him. Any more and he wasn't too sure he would stop the enraged girl in his arms from ripping the guy apart.

The younger man's move though, alerted Roshi to his presence. "Oh, hey-yo! I did not see you there, Boy! You still hogging that pretty girlie to yourself? I cannot blame ya. If I were ten years younger—"

"I wouldn't let you touch me if you were even a hundred years younger!" Videl roared from behind Gohan.

"—I would be all up in that. In fact, I could show you a few tricks…"

"I…I think I'll pass."

"Pity." Upon seeing the look that was on the dark-haired youth's face, he then said, "Do not worry, Boy, I am not after your princess this time. I am just kidding."

"Th-This time?" Gohan queried as the smoke slowly dissipated and revealed the form of a short elderly man with a shining bald head and a pair of red-rimmed sunglasses. His body was wrapped in a velvety, wine-red dressing robe and he held a pipe in his right hand. When he brought the pipe up to his mustached lips for a puff, bubbles sprouted out of the top.

"Do not tell me you forgot about little old me? We were the best o' pals, m'boy," the older gentleman said. When he opened his mouth to guffaw at Gohan's supposed silliness, the youth noted that most of the man's teeth were missing.

Videl squirmed a bit Gohan's arms as if she were thinking about thrashing free and attacking the old man. The youth tightened his hold and pulled her back against his chest. "I...I'm sorry, sir, I don't..."

"We were thick as thieves, ya know. Why, I remember it like it was yesterday. You came to me as I was…meditating. You even brought me a pretty little girlie for company, heck, you brought _two_ pretty girlies. That was the best day of my life!"

Videl muttered something against Gohan's body, but he couldn't make heads or tails of it. Something about the old man's memory being utter...rap? Trap? Crap? Regardless, Gohan had no idea what this Roshi guy was talking about.

The old man seemed to recognized this as he fell silent, one hand stroking at his billy goat beard while his other hand held his pipe up to his lip. He seemed to be pondering something as he puffed bubbles into the atmosphere. "I see," he said in a much calmer voice. "Well, it would be unbecoming to leave young people like yourselves wandering around here. Come on up to the house. My bunny-guards will escort you."

* * *

Videl's bunny suit can be viewed on megaminoeien's DeviantArt page, _D2Z Return of the Bunny Suit._ You just had to know Videl was gonna end up in that get-up again. MVS wanted to push the sexiness factor here and she succeeded lol. As she mentions in her description, this is a revisiting of an old joke, though it was expanded on with the bunny suit as the new uniform for Roshi's harem.

To 11235813: I think they might be getting longer lol. The early chapters I had written a few years ago, so they hover around the 3000 word range, not to mention an idea for the story that ended up being scraped due to flat out forgetting what was involved in it. Later chapters will be longer, though.

To Zerolink100: They also did something other than walking and bumping into people. So far that's all that's happened pretty much lol. And there were some definite references to those trials there.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	10. Meet my Guests

Roshi led the group of bunnies and Gohan up to the mansion. The trip had been fraught with peril, mostly for Videl. The old man had a tendency to appear right next to her and grope a random body part, usually her ass. Currently, there were several large lumps on Roshi's head signifying each attempt. However, Videl hadn't been the only one that fell victim to the geezer's wandering hands. The bunny guards had their hindquarters thoroughly groped along the way, though, to Gohan, it looked as if they enjoyed it.

That was a very disturbing realization.

Once they had arrived at the mansion, two of the bunny guards had reached the doors and glanced around to make sure there were no immediate threats. Once they were satisfied, they opened the doors for the group, everyone shuffling into a large, richly decorated room. Oh, and well lit. A large chandelier hung from the roof, casting out much light from the flames that burned on it.

"Welcome to my summer home!" Roshi announced as he held out his arms. "Please, make yourselves comfortable. Someone, alert the house staff that we have more visitors. Someone else, tell the other guests we have more visitors. And someone else, give me a foot massage! These old feet will not rub themselves!"

Immediately, the bunny guards scattered to various doorways around the room, putting into action their master's orders. There was a bit of a scuffle between a few of the bunnies as they fought for the honor of rubbing the old man's feet, but a quick snap of the boss bunny's whip ended that.

Roshi lumbered his way to a sinfully cushioned chair and plopped himself into it, his body sinking into the chair. Immediately, an ottoman was placed right in front of him, and his feet casually resting on it. The boss bunny then knelt in front of him, taking off his shoes—slippers, now that Gohan got a better look at them—and took on the honorable task of the foot massage.

With a wave of his hand, Roshi indicated a nearby sofa. "Please, have a seat. My other guests will be joining us shortly."

Gohan felt he should show some gratitude for the offered seating and began clumsily bowing to the old man. Videl merely walked over to the sofa and sat on it, her arms crossed over her chest and one of her legs going through the motion of crossing on top of the other. A bit startled by the lady's action, Gohan quickly made his way to the couch and sat next to her, albeit towards the end. He was still a bit leery of the curvaceous body the dark-haired girl had.

"So tell me, why are you two wandering about my lands?" Roshi asked as he fixed his sunglass-covered eyes on them. "As much as I appreciate visitors—especially ones that fill out the bunny suits nicely—it is not often someone comes here."

"We were just passing through," Videl answered truthfully, leaning back into the sofa as she made herself comfortable. "We were on our way to the east."

"I suppose that makes sense," Roshi acknowledged with a nod of his head. "Those are Demon lands; but I am still curious as to why you were so far west? Last I heard, you were still—"

"It was an accident," Videl immediately interrupted, startling Gohan even more. In his world, you didn't interrupt a lord when he was talking, and it was pretty obvious to the dark-haired youth that this Roshi fellow was indeed a lord. Commoners like them never had a chance at talking to someone of his rank, much less meet with them.

"We were on our way back," the young woman continued, oblivious to Gohan's incredulous stare. "But _this guy_ ," here she indicated with a nod of her head to the young man, "made a wish on a genie that sent us all the way to the western part of your kingdom. We have been making our way back ever since."

"Well, it could have been worse," the old man commented before he let out a loud moan. Apparently the boss bunny had some very good hands as she worked on the old, wrinkly feet. "Oooooh, right there! That hits the spot! Baby, you can touch me anywhere!"

That didn't sound right and Gohan definitely didn't want to know _where_ the old geezer wanted to be touched. So he wisely decided to continue to conversation. "How could it have been worse?"

Roshi gazed at the youth puzzled. "Hmm?" he grunted out, sounding quite lost. "What is that?"

"How could the wish have been worse?" Gohan replied, trying to prod the man's memory.

"Wish? What wish?"

"The one that—"

Another loud groan tore out of Roshi's mouth, interrupting the youth. Slightly embarrassed, Gohan wanted for the old man to fall silent before he tried again. "The wish that—"

And another groan.

"The wish that—"

Another groan.

"The wish that I—"

Another groan.

"The wish that—"

And another groan.

"Gohan, just give it a rest," Videl said, letting out an annoyed sigh. "He's not going to—"

"The wish that I—"

Another loud groan.

Immediately, Videl hit Gohan on the back of his head, causing the young man to yelp in surprise. "What did I just tell you? Quit it, or do you want me to hit you again?"

"Hey, you sound just like my boss bunny!" Roshi suddenly exclaimed, causing to the two dark-haired youths to look at him.

"I am so not going to ask where you heard her say that," the bunny-clad lady grumbled.

"Where? Why, in my bedroom, of course!"

Videl slapped a hand against here face. "I said I did _not_ want to know, you old pervert."

"You did not?" Roshi sounded as if he could have cared less. "Why did you not say so?"

"She did say so. You just ignored her."

The new voice caught Gohan off guard. Snapping his head around, he quickly found two new people standing in the closest doorway, one a short man and the other a much taller lady. Considering the voice had been feminine, the youth was betting on the lady talking.

Then again, Sharpner had been known to talk like a girl…

"Ah, you are here at last," Roshi greeted, ignoring the quip from earlier. Turning his attention back to Gohan and Videl, he gestured to the new couple and said, "Allow me to introduce the Lord Krillen and his beautiful wife, the Lady Eighteen."

The first thought that had gone through Gohan's head was that yes, the lady was beautiful. Though her cold blue eyes sent out a warning to not stare at her features and blonde hair for too long, it was quite hard to tear ones eyes from her. However, her unusual name threw off his captivation. "Eight mmph?"

Instantly, Videl slapped a hand over his mouth, muffling the rest of his words. "Not now," she growled lowly to him, the heat of her breath brushing against his ear. "It's rude to ask such questions."

"I know, I know, she has a quite odd name," Roshi suddenly spoke, ruining the young woman's action. "But blame her former lord. He did not have a very good imagination when it came to naming people. I still have not figured out why she is called that. I was thinking that there were seventeen other beautiful women lying around, but for some reason that old goat never showed them to me."

"There is a very good reason why he would not," the Lady Eighteen said, much closer now. She and Lord Krillen had taken the time to walk over to the three, approaching a couch opposite the two dark-haired youths. Vaguely, Gohan could make out a rather lush body beneath the dress the Lady wore and he had a rather hard time looking away.

The old man perked his head up at this. "You mean there are seventeen more girls that look just like you? I knew it! That old goat was holding out on me!"

"Are you going to introduce us?" Krillen suddenly spoke up, his voice a warm one in comparison to the cool tone of his wife. "Who are your guests, milord?"

Gohan knew this Krillen fellow was a short man, but he didn't really know just how short until the man sat down on the couch. His feet were dangling off the ground as he slid back to rest against the back of the sofa. It proved quite distracting—though not as distracting as his wife—and more so than his bald head. It was just as shiny as Roshi's head!

"Who are you talking about?" Roshi asked before looking back at the two dark-haired youths. "Oh, them; I forgot. These are—"

"We are old acquaintances," Videl interjected immediately, her words sounding quite odd to the young man. In fact, she had been talking that way exclusively to Roshi, now that he thought about it. Why was she talking that way? "I am Videl and this is Gohan. We were just passing through when," at this, the young lady paused as she prepared herself to say her next words, "we were attacked by those bunny slu…girls."

Krillen and Eighteen both gave Videl a once over before the Lady commented, "That would explain your…attire."

The dark-haired girl stiffened at the remark. Gohan was sure that if a man had been the one to say that, extreme violence would have followed. Apparently there were different laws that stated women couldn't hit each other when they felt insulted, or annoyed. Quite unfair really.

"It was not my fault," Videl retorted with a hint of anger in her tone. "One of the pervert's guards hit me with some magic smoke grenade. They put me in this."

"Best thing I ever invented!" Roshi crowed.

The Lady Eighteen immediately stared coldly at the old man and watched as he seemed to shrink in on himself. Her face didn't contort at all with anger, or any other emotion. It was as if all she needed was to bore her frozen blue eyes into you and you would meekly stand down.

Feeling that the conversation needed to go in a different direction, Gohan finally spoke up. "So, why are you two here?"

Krillen immediately answered, seemingly to understand what the youth was up to. "We were visiting," he said eagerly. "We always drop in once a year; it is the best real estate in the Turtle lands and our daughter just loves the beaches here."

"Oh? You have a daughter?" Gohan asked politely.

"Most beautiful girl in all the lands," Krillen gloated proudly. Next to him, the Lady Eighteen turned her head to the shorter man, a small smile gracing her lips. It seemed a little odd considering all she had shown so far were blank stares. "She is only six years old and is the most popular lady at court."

"She is in bed now," Eighteen continued for her husband. "It is way past her bedtime."

"Oh. Well, congratulations," Gohan said.

"Speaking of bedtime, we do need to go over room arrangements," Roshi piped up once more. Immediately, he looked right at Videl and said, "There is plenty of space in my bed for you."

The next thing Gohan knew, the bunny-clad girl was sitting right next to him, one of her arms linked with his. "Uh, no," she deadpanned. "Gohan and I will be sharing a room, thank you very much."

"He can join us! I've got plenty of bunny girls to keep him company while we do our thing!"

Videl stared at the old man before looking to the Lady Eighteen and said, "I think it would be best if my companion here and I shared a room. I do not believe having my own room would be beneficial since the old man might try something with me."

"And you want a potential cock block with you," the blonde lady bluntly added.

Videl shrugged her shoulders. "It has worked before."

"It would be fair to point out that there is only one bed per room," Krillen said cautiously.

"That will do."

Realization hit Gohan just what was going on. He and Videl, in lingerie no less, would be sharing a bed tonight. There would be no sleeping on the floor, no separate bed; just him, the girl, and the only thing separating them being pieces of lacy cloth. The visuals were already assaulting his mind.

"I cannot help but feel that you know Lord Roshi well," Krillen spoke, sounding thoughtful. "Very well, actually. Have you crossed paths before?"

Videl nodded her head in answer as Gohan shook his. He even added, "This is my first time."

At this, Roshi jolted up in his seat and finally tore his eyes away from the ladies in the room. The young man couldn't help but feel uncomfortable as he felt the old geezer's gaze boring into him. The last time he had someone look at him like that, he had been ratted out on by a White Russian drinker.

"I believe it is time we call an end to this night," Roshi announced, holding himself stiffly in his chair. With a glance to Videl, he added, "And there is something you and I need to discuss."

"If it is about the bunny harem again, my answer is still—"

"No, nothing of the sort. There are important matters I must be informed of and it is your responsibility that I am."

Gohan blinked his eyes owlishly at the way the old man was talking. It was as if that silly self of his was locked away so a more serious person could take control. Did this guy have multiple personalities, or something? He hoped not cause he already ran into weird people like that already.

* * *

The hallways were dark, a product of very few candles burning. For the most part the lit ones were at the corners of the hall, which left the middle dimly lit, or just bathed in darkness. There were so many of these halls that it was quite easy to get lost in them.

For Gohan, he was starting to regret roaming this castle. After Roshi had called an end to their gathering, he and Videl had gone into a library and shut themselves in. Before the young man could've asked what was going on, one of the maids swooped in and led him to a bedroom. She had been quite flirty with him as she sashayed in her black, high skirted uniform. She even had a feather duster that she had used liberally—especially around his groin—which was followed by some high-pitched giggling. All in all, the maid had left him quite flustered by her behavior.

However, instead of going to sleep—which he had tried—he found himself unable to sleep and eventually thirsty. Since he was a guest of this place, the youth figured it wouldn't be too much trouble to run down to the kitchen and grab a glass of water.

That had been his first mistake.

It had taken him forever to wander the halls until, by some stroke of luck, he found the kitchen. It took him just as long to find a cup to drink from, rummaging through the hundred some odd cabinets in there. He ended up finding these cups made of glass, which was surprising to him, but they would serve their purpose. Don't even get him started on finding the water as that was an adventure in and of itself. It was quite the hassle to be honest.

With a heavy sigh, Gohan trudged further down his current corridor, an empty glass in hand as he had finished his water long ago and he didn't feel brave enough to try and retrace his steps back to the kitchen. What he wouldn't give to find his room—heck, he would have settled for that maid tickling his fanny if it got him there. What he needed was a sign.

Passing a set of double doors, Gohan was just about to ignore them when he heard a muffled sound. Stopping, he gazed curiously at the wooden barriers, wondering if his ears were playing games with him. It was only a matter of seconds before he heard the sounds again.

Oh good, someone was in there.

Taking a step to the doors, he grabbed the door handle and gave it a tug, finding it locked. Frowning, he gave it a couple more tugs, the doors not budging an inch. Oh wonderful, he couldn't get in.

Suddenly, the sounds he heard grew louder. In fact, he could've sworn it was someone talking. His curiosity getting the better of him, Gohan had to know what was going on. Lifting his empty glass, he pressed the mouth of it against the door and then placed his ear on the bottom of the glass. He had heard tales of little children doing this when they wanted to eavesdrop on their parents. One had even claimed to him he had heard his mommy and daddy wrestling loudly. The youth had found it strange that two people would be fighting each other like that.

However, it seemed the dark-haired young man had been lied to. Whatever sounds were being made, they weren't being transferred through the glass. About the only thing he could discern was that there were two people in there, a man and a woman. That was it though.

"Ahem."

Flinching, Gohan swung around, his heart pounding wildly in his chest as he turned to find the Lady Eighteen staring at him, still in her dress from earlier, but with her own water glass in hand. "What are you doing?"

"I…I…I…" the young man stammered as he stared at the blonde woman. This was bad. Very, very bad. It was rude to eavesdrop after all, or so he had been told. Dropping the eaves on a lord though, was not something a commoner did without a severe reprimand. There was usually a removal of an ear if caught.

"You know, it is not proper to be spying on someone else's conversation," the Lady spoke softly. "Though surely that is not what you were doing."

"Umm, nope. Not at all," Gohan hastily agreed. "I…I was…I was getting a drink from the kitchen. Yeah! A drink from the kitchen! And I got lost on the way back!"

The young man paused at those words. Why did that sound like he was making a story up? That was what he had been doing! It wasn't his fault he found another use for the cup.

"This pleases me," the Lady Eighteen acknowledged with a nod of her head. "Had you been eavesdropping, I would have had to alert my husband and he would have had to chop off both of your ears and remove your tongue."

Gohan gulped at that. "Good thing I'm not doing…that."

"Quite."

A silence fell on them as they stared at each other. Ultimately, the dark-haired youth broke that silence. "So, what are you doing up?"

"I was listening in onto the conversation," the blonde lady responded with a shrug of her shoulders. Instantly, Gohan's eyes were drawn to the glass in her hand and he couldn't help but notice how dry it was. Of all the—

"Perhaps we should have a talk," the Lady suddenly declared, startling the youth out of his musing. "Come, follow me lest you be caught."

But…he had been caught. Why was this woman talking like this? Upon seeing the Lady of the House walking down the hallway, the young man shook his head and quickly followed after her. It was best that he just did as she said and not question her too much. It was possible she would change her mind and then he would be in a whole mess of trouble.

The Lady led him into a separate hall and then down another. Reaching the end of that corridor, she opened a door and stepped through, leaving it open for Gohan to enter. Taking her cue, he stepped through the doorway and found himself in a sitting room. A large rug covered the entire floor with a couple of couches facing each other, a small table situated between them. On one wall was an unlit chimney and it looked as if it wouldn't be lit tonight if the blonde woman had any say in it. She was currently lighting a few candles that were placed on a small dresser in the corner of the room. Each one she lit she would place in a multi-branched, golden candle holder.

As fresh light began to fill the room, Gohan stood stiffly by the door. He was unsure what to do, or what this woman wanted. Best to wait for instruction. The Lady didn't disappoint him there.

"Close the door and have a seat," she ordered as she picked up the candle holder and carried it to the small table. Setting the candles down, she took a seat on one of the couches and smoothed out any wrinkles that appeared in her dress.

Following her instructions, Gohan shut the door and took a seat on the opposite couch. Uncomfortably, he waited for the Lady to continue their little meeting. "You can relax you know, I am not going to bite," the blonde woman said in an attempt to soothe his nerves. "Hard."

Gohan paled. "Are you a vampire?"

Lady Eighteen just stared at him coolly. "You are even less humorous than I am."

"I…sorry." That was all Gohan could think of to say as he nervously scratched the back of his head. "I'm not used to talking to a Lady."

"So I have noticed," she said dryly. "To the point then, we need to discuss what we should do about your eavesdropping."

"What? But you said you didn't see me doing that!"

"I lied."

"But…that's not fair."

"Life is not fair. Get used to it."

Upon hearing that, the young man began to sulk. Why did she get to change her mind and he had to suffer the consequences. Why couldn't she just stick with one choice and be done with it? You didn't see him going back on something he said.

"Now then," Lady Eighteen said, acting as if she hadn't noticed his pouting, "we must determine what to do with you. You have committed an egregious crime and must be punished for it. Yet, I believe you could make yourself much more useful if you were whole. Agreed?"

Gohan reluctantly answered "…yes."

"Then perhaps we can work something out. You see, I have a problem."

"And what is your problem?" the youth asked, clearly uninterested.

Again, Lady Eighteen ignored his attitude. "You have seen my husband so this makes it easier to explain. He has no nose."

Gohan had been paying little attention until that last sentence. "Wha? No nose? Really?"

"Yes, he has no nose."

"How? Doesn't he need that to breathe?"

"A very good question and one I have learned not to ask. But that is not my problem."

"Then why mention that?"

At this, the blonde woman looked quite uncomfortable. "It is my daughter. She has the same…affliction."

Gohan blinked his eyes at that. A little girl with no nose? How bizarre. "So she doesn't have a nose?" he asked for clarification, mostly to make sure he wasn't making a mistake in what he was hearing. Upon seeing the Lady nod her head, he then asked, "Can I see?"

Lady Eighteen's eyes narrowed. "No." Raising a hand up, she reached for a strand of her hair that begun to hand in front of her face. Moving it to a side and hanging it behind her ear, she continued, "But you can imagine that this will serve as a problem as she grows up. Young women are very self-conscious of their looks and an absent nose, I fear, may overwhelm my daughter."

As sad as he was for the girl, Gohan had no idea how this involved him. "So what does this have to do with me?"

A small smile graced the Lady's lips. "To the north, in the kingdom I hail from, there are two lone mountains, which form a valley. In this valley grows a tree, which produces a peculiar fruit. It is said that when this fruit is consumed, it can enhance particular body parts. In fact, if it is prepared properly, one could actually grow any part they wished. It is this fruit that I seek."

The young man quickly figured out where this was going. "So you want me to get this fruit for you. Why can't you do it yourself?"

The blonde woman's head tilted up, as if she were sticking her nose into the air haughtily. "I am a Lady of the Court, my time is not my own. I cannot simply take off on my own. That is why I require you."

"So I do your dirty work." However, a thought came to the youth, one that could possibly get him out of this errand. "And you said it was to the north? I'm sorry, but I can't go there."

For once, the Lady openly showed her displeasure as she frowned. "Are you not afraid of having your tongue cut out? Do I need to remove some other body part? Something that you will… _miss_ …?"

Gohan instantly paled at the not-so-veiled threat. She…she wouldn't, would she? After all her talk, she wouldn't just take it, right? "But I need my nose!"

The blonde woman's face dropped at that. "Your nose? Why would I—"

"Because I need it to breathe and you wouldn't have me to run that errand for you. So you need to let me keep it," the young man continued to ramble. Anything to stop her from taking his beloved nose.

"Just…shut up," the Lady snapped, silencing the youth. "I just want you to get me the damn fruit, alright? Is that so hard to do?"

"No, not at all," he quickly tried to reassure her. If this kept her away from cutting off his body parts, he was gonna take it. "It's just…Videl. She doesn't want me anywhere near Ribbon territory. There's no way I could convince her to go that way, even for your daughter."

The woman's frown turned upside down as a sly glint shown from her eyes. "Oh, I think we can fix that."

* * *

Gohan returned to his room feeling much more exhausted than he had expected. With the way things turned out during his conversation with the Lady Eighteen, he was starting wonder just how this was going to be pulled off. The blonde woman had come up with some ideas that were just crazy enough to work. And since he lived in a crazy world, chances were good that they would.

Standing in front of his large bed, the young man was debating whether he should try getting beneath the sheets, or just collapse right on it. That second option was looking quite good at the moment. Yet, he wasn't able to come to a decision as the door to the room swung open and Videl trudged in, looking just as tired as he was. Once her eyes caught sight of him, she looked surprised for a second. "What are you still doing up?"

Deciding it would be best to keep his long story short, he answered, "Couldn't sleep."

Videl stared at him before shrugging her shoulders and walking to the bed, the sound of her heels echoing throughout the room. "Better get some sleep. You need to have all the rest you can get."

Rest, the one thing he wanted. Seeing as how he was gonna have to share the bed now, his choice just to drop on the mattress was out. With a sigh, he turned his body so he could sit on the edge of the bed.

It was then that Gohan found out that Videl wasn't too well practiced in walking in heels. As she neared the place the young man had been standing, one of her steps landed awkwardly on the stone floor, throwing off her balance and causing her to stumble. With wide eyes, the young woman tumbled right onto Gohan, knocking him down onto the bed.

"Ow," Videl groaned as she lay right on top of him. "That was so not graceful." Gohan was inclined to agree with her when he realized that her entire body was pressed right into him—her barely-covered-with-lingerie body.

Instantly, the youth's face heated up as he felt two soft mounds rubbing against his chest as Videl shifted on top of him. Already, he could feel a slight tightening in his pants that he hoped the bounty hunter would miss, but something told him that his wish wouldn't come true, especially with one of her stocking-covered legs positioned right between his legs.

"Hey, you alright?" The question caught Gohan off guard as his gaze turned to Videl's worried face. "I didn't hurt you too much, did I?" she asked as she pushed herself up to hover over him.

"No, you didn't," he replied, sounding somewhat normal. That was something anyway. He didn't really want to alert the dark-haired woman to his growing discomfort.

"That's go—" Her words came to a quick halt as she frowned. Her blue eyes darted down their bodies and—to Gohan's horror—towards their legs. A second later and she looked right back at him, a growing smirk on her face.

"So," she began nonchalantly, "is there something you'd like to tell me?"

"No, not really," Gohan squeaked out. "Nothing at all."

"Nothing, huh?" The bunny-clad woman's eyes flickered down again and back to him. "I wouldn't call that nothing." Slowly, her body lowered down until she was resting on top of him again, one of her hands placed right on his chest.

Gohan gulped audibly. That only caused Videl to chuckle as her face drew closer to his. "What's wrong? It's not like we haven't been in this position before."

 _Huh?_ What was she talking about? When had they been like this before? "We have?" he asked confused.

Videl's eyes widened at that and she immediately pulled away, rolling off his body and onto the bed mattress. "Never mind," she said quickly as she stared up at the ceiling. "I must've been thinking of something else."

 _Something or someone?_ The only thing that made sense was that Videl had been in a position like this with another person and she must've mixed him up with that other guy. For some reason though, Gohan didn't like that thought.

* * *

Gohan and Videl's little moment was inspired by megaminoeien's fanart _Return of the Bunny Suit 2._ What can I say, my partner-in-crime certainly knows how to steer me with this story lol.

To Zerolink100: Hmm, that's a good question. The Unholy Grail has been quiet for so long lol. Though its power doesn't do much for memory, aside from making you forget it coupled with a pounding headache.

To JayQC80: For some reason I can't PM you, so I'd figure I'd respond to you this way. Glad you're liking the story and thanks!

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	11. The Valley of Vanity

Gohan really couldn't lie—he was interested in Videl's preparations as he stared at the girl's naked back. Well, not quite naked since there were a few bandages running around her body. She was currently in the process of binding her chest, winding the bandage roll around her back and to her other hand, which completed the turn by handing the roll to the other hand in front. She was very practiced at this as she was moving efficiently.

On the bed next to the dark-haired girl was a shirt. There had been a pair of pants, but that was the first thing Videl had put on after pulling off her stockings. It became quite apparent that they were too short for her as the hem of the legs came to an abrupt stop about mid-calf.

Who would've thought that Krillen was that short?

Fortunately, a pair of boots belonging to Roshi had fitted her, so there was no need to try and find a pair outside the castle. Though the old man had tried to barter the boots away, the Lady Eighteen had stared him down with that cold, unfeeling look of hers and he relented. Those boots were now on the dark-haired woman's feet, the end of Krillen's pants barely tucked into them and successfully hiding their shortness.

In no time at all, Videl finished her wraps, tearing the bandage off the roll and tossing the roll onto the bed. She fiddled with the end in front of her, doing what with it, Gohan didn't know, but it had to do with something with keeping it up. Once done, she pulled on the shirt and quickly found the sleeves came up short of her wrists.

"I guess this is the best I'm gonna get," the lady muttered as she stared at the offending sleeves. Getting over it quickly, she began buttoning up the shirt.

"Why are you dressing up like a guy again?" Gohan asked as he continued to watch. "You don't have to hide in boy clothes anymore."

"Like I told you last night," Videl replied with practiced ease, "it's easier to travel as a guy. As a girl, I'm practically walking with a target on my back. No one even thinks twice if I look like a guy. Less savory people might think I'm an even easier target if they see me walking with you; they'd think I'm hanging around you for protection."

"Huh, never really thought about it like that," the young man admitted.

A knock at the door ended any further conversation between the two. When the door opened, the Lady Eighteen entered the room and gazed at them blandly. "I see you are almost ready," she commented as she took in their appearances. "Excellent, the coach is just about ready for you."

"Coach?" Videl questioned as she turned her head to the blonde woman. "What coach?"

Gohan immediately stiffened at this. Last night's conversation with the Lady came flooding back to him and he was not looking forward to his comrade finding out about it. He could only imagine what irritated thoughts would come from this.

"Your friend and I crossed paths last night," the Lady stated simply. "We were both restless and went for a late night drink. There, Gohan confided in me that you two were having trouble on your journey and I offered to assist you."

"Is that right?" Videl said as she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Her eyes darted from the blonde woman to Gohan, obviously trying to figure out what was what.

"It is. There is a coach in the stables that is being outfitted with shades. This way you can ride in it without being seen."

"And what makes you think we don't…do not want to be seen?"

"Gohan informed me."

Videl's eyes focus on Gohan, making even more nervous. "How considerate of him."

"Quite. Now if you will follow me, I will lead you to the stable." With that, the Lady Eighteen turned around and exited the room.

"We need to have a _very_ long talk, Gohan," Videl said lowly.

"Sh-shouldn't we go to the stable?" the young man asked nervously. "It…it wouldn't be nice if we kept them waiting."

"Fine, but the moment we leave, you're telling me everything." The dark-haired woman turned to leave the room, coming to a stop in the doorway. Glaring over her shoulder, she reiterated, " _Everything._ "

As she left, Gohan gulped loudly. He had a feeling this carriage ride was going to be very unpleasant. Feeling as if his feet weighed a ton, he trudged out of the room and down the halls, following the two women until they reached the stables. There was a rather fashionable carriage sitting in the corridor between the horse stalls. The windows were cloaked in black. Yep, no one was going to be seeing through that glass.

Videl, in the meantime, was pacing around the carriage, examining it for some reason or another. "This is a generous carriage," she said at last before looking to the blonde woman. "There must be a catch."

The Lady Eighteen gazed at the dark-haired woman blandly. "You do not believe I am doing this out of the goodness of my heart?"

"Not at all."

"Rude, but you should not worry about that. You are wasting daylight and I would advise you to start leaving."

"She's right," Gohan added, trying to support the Lady. "We should get going."

That earned him a scowl, but Videl did as was ordered, climbing into the carriage. With a quick look to the Lady Eighteen, who was staring at him with a significant look, Gohan hurried into the carriage as well, the door shutting behind him. It took a few moments for the carriage to jolt into movement, the sound of hooves clopping against the stone pavement of the stable. The clopping dulled down some once they pulled onto pulled onto dirt. It'd be no time at all before they reached their destination, at least that's what the young man hoped for.

* * *

The carriage ride had been long and uneventful. No surprise attacks from bounty hunters, no sudden appearances from Sharpner even though they were long overdue for one; not even a broken cartwheel had hindered them. For once everything was going their way.

Of course, that hadn't stopped Videl from grilling the young man over the Lady Eighteen's generosity. It had been long and tiring to satisfactorily answer all her questions, but Gohan came out relatively unscathed. The dark-haired woman was none the wiser that they were on their way north to that valley the blonde woman told him about. It was even more fortunate that she didn't recognize any of the inns they stopped at for the night; if there was any chance the young lady would have found out about the deception, those were the places.

Unfortunately, the peace and quiet that had fallen over the two dark-haired youths came to an abrupt end when the carriage stopped. Curious, the two had climbed out to investigate why they had stopped and it was then that Gohan found they had arrived at the valley.

"Here we are," the cab driver announced as he tied the horse reins to a metal bar on the driver's seat. "Welcome to the Valley of Vanity."

And what a valley it was. A lush green valley stretched out before them, situated between two rather tall mountains. It was a bit odd to see them since there were no other mountain formations in sight, but there they were.

Of course, that had been all the proof Videl had needed to know something was wrong. Snapping her head over to glare at him, she demanded, "Okay, what the hell is going on?!" she bellowed at him. "This isn't Demon Country, this is Ribbon Country! _Why did we go back north?!_ "

Gohan flinched from the anger in the lady's voice. He had expected her to be furious, but not quite this much. If looks could kill, he would've been a bloody carcass at the moment—him and the cab driver knowing the dark-haired girl. "W-we had to come here," he answered meekly, cringing away from the woman. "L-Lady Eighteen asked—"

"I _knew_ it!" Videl exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me? Huh? No, better yet, why didn't you tell her we couldn't go into Ribbon territory? You let her send us back into the worst place we could go!"

"She asked for a favor, that's it," Gohan said, taking a couple of steps away. He felt it was best if he was out of jumping distance; that way he stood a chance of running away. "Since she was unable to go and we were on the road, she asked for us to come here and get something for her."

"An errand. You decided to put your neck on the line for a freaking errand? Damn it all, Gohan! Why didn't you say no? Was saying no that hard, or did she promise you something in return?"

"Well, she did say she wouldn't cut me into pieces."

Videl was silent for a moment. Her eyes narrowed then. "I've made that threat to you before and you didn't do as I say."

"That's because you didn't have a hoard of servants that would track me down either," Gohan pointed out. "And she could've gotten Roshi's bunny brigade to do it too and you know how persistent they are."

"Then why didn't you tell me about it? I could've told her to back off."

The young man raised an eyebrow at that. "A bounty hunter telling a noblewoman to not threaten me? Umm, I don't think that would work."

Videl looked as if she were going to counter that, but came up short. It took a few seconds before she slumped her shoulders. "You still should have told me, Gohan. You're trusting some stranger more than you are me and I'm the one that's trying to keep you alive."

Seeing the dejected look on Videl's face twisted the dark-haired youth's stomach into knots. With a sigh, he said, "This is more for her daughter than the Lady. There's a fruit in this valley that will help her and if we get it, the Lady will let us use the carriage until we get to the Demon lands. How could I say no to helping a little girl?"

"Let's just get this done, alright?" Videl said, still looking unhappy. "The sooner we get this done, the better, alright?"

With nothing to say to that, Gohan followed the dark-haired woman into the valley. Oddly, the cab driver didn't follow them, opting to stay with the carriage. His loss. A forest had grown through the hilly valley and the two had to weave their way through the overgrowth. At first they stayed in silence, much like the trees and bushes around them. It was almost eerie since most wooded areas were filled with the noise of animals, insects, and wind. Down one hill and up another, they ventured deeper and deeper into the quiet forest.

The silence was broken as they were ascending another hill. "Why don't you trust me?" Videl asked out of the blue. The entire time, the young man could see his comrade was troubled. Since she wasn't one to just sulk in her feelings, it was only a matter of time before she spoke and it seemed she had chosen now to do so.

"I trust you," Gohan replied, looking towards the woman.

"Then why didn't you tell me about this? Why keep quiet about it the entire time?" she questioned.

"If I had told you, you would have said no," he answered calmly. "And I had agreed to help."

"After she threatened you," Videl retorted grumpily. Obviously she wasn't buying his explanation. "You said she threatened to cut you up, right? Of course you would agree to help."

"Hey, I need my nose just like everybody else," Gohan defended. "I can't be like that Krillen guy, however he manages to breathe."

Videl stopped in her tracks, blinking her eyes owlishly at that. "She wanted to cut off…your nose?" she questioned curiously. It was almost as if she didn't believe what she was hearing.

"Yeah, what else would she want to cut off?"

At this, she got thoughtful. "Well, if I was in her shoes, I would have threatened to cut off your penis."

This time it was Gohan's turn to stop. "Why does everything you threaten involve removing that?"

"I don't always threaten to do that."

"There was this one time you were chasing me and you shouted, 'Your balls are mine'."

"Okay, just that one time…" the woman began to acknowledge before Gohan cut her off.

"And there was another time you fought off a bunch of bounty hunters and said you'd castrate one of them if they ever came near me again."

"Fine, that's another—"

"And then another guy you said you'd feed his penis to him if he came within a hundred yards, of you or anything that remotely looked like a girl."

"Hey, that guy deserved th—"

"And then there was Sharpner when he rigged that wooden cage with that odd silver bandage stuff. You said you'd rip out his entire package."

"Now that's just not fair—"

"Then there was that time when Sharpner jumped out a bush half naked and scratching himself raw. I think he said something about an itchy plant or something. And then there was another time when Sharpner almost cornered me and you started crushing his—"

"Alright, I get it!" Videl snapped. "So I have threatened that place a lot. Happy?"

"And there was this other time with Sharpner—"

"Enough Gohan!" she bellowed, causing the trees to shake. "Seriously, I get it. Can we move on now?"

"Okay, sure."

The lady huffed loudly as they neared the top of the hill. "Anyway, back to what we were talking about." She paused then for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Umm, what were we talking about?"

Gohan opened his mouth to reply before he frowned. What _had_ they been talking about? He honestly couldn't remember. How odd. "I…don't remember," he managed to say after a long while.

"That's weird," Videl looking bothered by that. "I guess it wasn't that important then."

"Guess not," Gohan replied with a shrug of his shoulders. And to be honest, who cared about something they had been talking about minutes ago? There were more important things to worry about, like…well…hmmm…what were they doing here again?

"Hey, do you hear that?" Videl suddenly spoke up, her head looking from side to side.

At this, the youth began focusing on his hearing. It didn't take more than a second for him to realize that there was a sound, something that stood out in this forest of silence. If he wasn't mistaken, that sounded like water—running water. Was there a river close by?

Immediately, Gohan picked up his pace, leaving Videl scrambling behind him. Out of nowhere, a thirst hit the young man he his body demanded water. So consumed by that urge, he ignored his companion's calls for him to slow down. Once he reached the top of the hill, he found more trees scattered before him, yet the sound of running water had grown louder.

Pressing on, he maneuvered through the trees, crashed through bushes, and caused as much noise as he possibly could. Nothing was getting between him and that water and damn it, he wanted it now!

And then the youth burst into a clearing where a stream ran through. There was almost a heavenly glow about it as he stared at it. Oh lovely, lovely water, how much he wanted to…

It was then that something caught Gohan attention, reluctantly making him tear his gaze from the crystal clear water. From the corner of his eye, he saw something parked next to the water, making soft, cooing sounds. With a frown on his face, the dark-haired man looked at the thing and quickly discovered it was a person. From where he was standing, he could make out rather simple clothes and long blond hair…

Wait, was that Sharpner?

Taking several steps closer to the person, Gohan found that yes, that was indeed Sharpner. The blond was sitting on the river bank, leaning over the steam and staring at something in it. That wasn't all that odd. Yet, the young man was talking out loud. Focusing on his hearing, Gohan tried to make out what the guy was saying.

"Where have you been all my life, you handsome devil, you? It's like we were meant to be, ya know? I can't imagine finding someone more perfect for me than you. Oh? You feel the same way? I…I'm so happy!"

Oh lord, what the heck was going on? This was too strange, even for Sharpner. As he stared at the blond with horror, a loud crashing sound went off behind him, making Gohan feel grateful for the disruption.

Turning around, the dark-haired youth found Videl entering the clearing, not the least bit happy. "Geez, you didn't have to run," the lady complained as she looked right at Gohan. "What was the big idea running off like that, huh?"

"Videl, I think we have a problem," Gohan said instead, pointing a finger to the disturbing sight of Sharpner. "Sharpner's acting strange."

Videl merely looked at the guy, studied him, then said, "I'm not seeing anything different."

At that point, Sharpner suddenly exclaimed, "Of course I'll have your baby!"

The dark-haired couple stared at the blond for that sudden announcement for a moment, right before Videl shrugged her shoulders and added, "See, there's nothing wrong with him."

Gohan wanted to argue, truly he did. But for as long as he knew Sharpner, he had to agree with the dark-haired woman. Still, in the interest of keeping a clear conscious, he had to come up with reasons, no matter how pointless it would be. "Couldn't there be a spell or something? Like there's something in the water charming him?"

Videl merely rolled her eyes. "If it bothers you so much, go and check."

Nodding his head, the young man made his way to the blond guy. The closer he got, the clearer Sharpner's words got, and they were disturbing. Very, very disturbing. They were so disturbing that the censors completely cut out the next sections to protect the story's status as "family-friendly." Woman dressed in sexy bunny suits were okay, but not the mindless ramblings of a deluded airhead.

Standing behind Sharpner, Gohan cleared his throat loudly to get the blond's attention. All he got in response was the young man saying, "I'm not sure how that'll work, but I can be very flexible." Staring oddly at Sharpner, Gohan tried clearing his throat louder, but was once more ignored. Annoyed, the dark-haired youth looked over Sharpner's shoulder to see what exactly was so fascinating to him.

The only thing he saw was Sharpner's reflection.

Sharpner then, for whatever reason, lowered his head to the water and did something Gohan couldn't quite see. When the blond raised his head up, he said, "You know, you have a very sloppy French kiss."

 _Oh…oh gods, did Sharpner…_ tongue _the water?_

Slapping a hand to his face, Gohan wondered why he bothered sticking up for some people. "Why didn't I listen?" he groaned out loud.

"What did I tell ya?" Videl suddenly said, standing right next to him. "Just Sharpner being Sharpner." Looking to the taller male, she then asked, "What was he doing out of curiosity?"

"Kissing the water," the dark-haired youth replied glumly.

"That's it? Huh. That's actually pretty mundane for him."

"…he used tongue."

"Oh. Now that's more like it." With a smug smirk on her face, Videl rested a hand on the back of the young man's shoulder and comfortingly began to rub him. "Don't feel too bad. I didn't think he was capable of this sort of stuff too once. We should go looking for that fruit tree of yours though."

While a part of him wanted to figure out what was wrong with Sharpner, aside from the usual oddities, Gohan felt his comrade was right. They had other things to deal with so the blond could wait, not that it seemed he minded. "Where should we start looking through?" the youth asked out loud. "There's so many trees here."

"You mean Eighteen didn't give you any?" Videl questioned. "That's just great. She sends us out here, but doesn't give us any clue where to find her stinkin' fruit."

Well, when you were right, you were right. Scratching the back of his head, Gohan began looking around, wondering which way to go. "It might be further into the woods, I guess. Legendary stuff rarely is at the front of…"

A few moments of silence fell on them, which caused Videl to frown. "Front of what? Why did you trail off?"

With his back to the stream, Gohan moved the hand behind his head and pointed it directly in front of him. "I think that's it."

It was a giant of a tree. Tall, wide, lots of low branches. It made one wonder how they could miss it when they first enter the clearing. Gohan definitely felt that way. However, the most important part was the fruit hanging from the branches. Their plump, red skin beckoned him, urging him to pick it and eat it. Saliva flooded his mouth the longer he stared at it. In fact, his stomach rumbled without actually doing anything.

"Damn, I'm hungry," Videl spoke.

Those sudden words tore the young man's eyes away from the fruit, making him stare at the little lady. The moment that happened, his desire evaporated, making the youth wonder if he had even felt that way at all. "That was you?" he asked. "Could've sworn it was me."

Videl ignored him. Instead, she approached the tree until she stood right beneath one of the fruit. "I think I'll just eat one of these," she said to no one in particular. As she reached up to a branch that was clearly out of her reach, Gohan could've sworn he saw the branch lean down towards her, offering the red-skinned fruit to her. It was the only explanation he could come up with as she was able to pluck the round fruit and bring it down. She licked her lips hungrily as she stared at it before she took a large bite out of it. A low moan slipped through her lips, along with some juice dribbling down her chin. "This is so good," she sighed before taking another bite. "And sweet. Oh, you have got to try one of these, Gohan." Rapidly, she devoured the rest of it, the sweet juice dripping down her chin.

It was then that Gohan felt something was off. There was something in the back of his head that was warning him, but about what he didn't know. As Videl licked her fingers clean, turning back to the young man as she began to saunter her way towards him, that wrong feeling grew more.

For instance, while Videl did her best to conceal her breasts, Gohan couldn't help but notice how her shirt at her chest seemed to be tighter than he remembered. In fact, he could've sworn it was getting bigger. As if to confirm this, Videl's hands moved to her chest and began pulling at her shirt. "This feels a little tight," she complained, her face looking more and more uncomfortable. "It didn't feel this way a moment a—"

Her words were interrupted by a loud ripping sound, which was immediately followed by Gohan's eye bulging out of his skull. There was no way he could tear his eyes away from the sight of Videl's shirt expanding greatly, pale skin emerging between the gaps between the shirt buttons. The buttons, to their credit, looked strained as they tried to keep the shirt closed, but it was only a matter of time before one—

A thread broke then, sending one of the buttons racing through the air and right by Gohan ear. Instinctively, he jerked his head away as he turned to see where the projectile went.

"What the $#%*!" Videl screeched, causing Gohan to turn back to the woman and immediately stare right back at her enormous melons. She had her arms wrapped around her front, trying to hold them at bay, but she was clearly struggling with it. "What's going on here?" she continued to shout, anger and fear laced in her voice. "What happened to my breasts?!"

"Boobs?" Sharpner suddenly said before Gohan could reply, the blond's head perking up and breaking eye-contact with the water and drawing the combined attention of the dark-haired couple. "Where? Where are the boobs?" he frantically exclaimed as he looked left to right and back. Turning around, his eyes fell onto Videl's enlarged chest. "Boobies!"

Instantly, the blond was on his feet and running at Videl, lunged at her the last few feet with his arms out wide so he could wrap them around the lady's body to keep her from escaping. In response, Videl shot a fist out and slammed it into his face, stopping him instantly. For awhile, they stayed in that position, Sharpner holding his arms out with an irritated woman's fist in his face.

Ultimately, Videl removed her fist, revealing a dark bruise in the middle of the blond's face. A drop of blood trickled from his crooked nose and made its way around the corner of his swelling lips. A second later and he toppled onto his back, still holding his pose. "Now's not the time to be dealing with you," the young woman growled angrily before her rage-filled blue eyes zeroed on Gohan. "And you."

Normally Gohan would have cringed from her tone, but he was just too distracted by her sudden increase in assets. It wasn't until her voice damn near broke his eardrums that he looked at something higher than her chest. " _QUIT STARING, YOU IMBECILE!"_

Snapping his eyes up to meet hers, he gulped audibly. "Sorry," he stammered out.

"What's going on here?" the lady demanded as she tried to reign in her hooters. "Why did I suddenly break through five cup sizes in seconds?"

The young man wanted to answer that question, but at the mention of her bosom, his eyes dropped right back to them and all thought was lost. That was until Videl was suddenly in front of him, one of her hands roughly clutching his chin and forcing his head up to look her in the face. "I swear to the heavens above, if you don't stop looking at my breasts, I will suffocate you with them," she growled lowly.

This time he successfully did not look down at her bust, though he had to admit he could barely see her cleavage from the bottom of his eye. Regardless, his life depended on him thinking straight for a minute, even if the thought of such large knockers on his face were quite tempting.

When he said nothing, Videl reiterated, "Do you have any idea why this happened?"

Well, that was a good question. As far as Gohan knew, the fruit they were getting was supposed to grow a little girl a nose, but obviously this didn't happen here. That kinda stumped him until he recalled the Lady Eighteen saying something about preparing the fruit in a certain way. So did that mean the fruit naturally increased boobs? Why would anyone want that? You'd have to be very self-conscious or vain to want to…

Oh…so that's how they named the valley.

Wincing, Gohan began explaining his theory. "I think it's the fruit. It grew your…boobs."

"Well, no duh," Videl snapped angrily. "Mind telling me why you and I were sent here to pick one? I can't see why a five year old needs to grow a pair."

"The Lady Eighteen said she could prepare it a certain way to make it grow another body part," the young man replied. "That's what she claimed anyways."

Videl was silent for a moment before saying, "So I'm stuck with these ridiculous breasts until we return to Roshi's mansion? You've got to be kidding me!"

Actually, Gohan wasn't sure if that was possible, but he wasn't going to tell Videl that. He didn't want her taking out her anger on him. He liked his teeth where they belonged, thank you.

* * *

To Zerolink100: Sort of a like a fake sword, huh?

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	12. The Mountain of Modesty

Like all good things in life, there was a name for it. That's what the plaque indicated anyways. No matter the mysterious object, be it an all-powerful gauntlet, a magical amulet, or even some cup no one had heard about—it was part of some story Gohan had heard from a deluded traveler, but who was he to judge?—there was always something nearby that proudly proclaimed what said object was. The Fruit of Vanity was no exception.

Staring at the plaque, Gohan read out loud, "According to this, the fruit shouldn't be eaten by anyone with self-esteem. Only someone who feels inadequate and underdeveloped should dare to eat the fruit."

"Oh, now you tell me," Videl snapped sarcastically. "You know, that information would've come in handy, oh, ten minutes ago!"

"No need to be angry," the young man retorted with annoyance. "It's not going to solve your bouncing problem."

"And who would?" Sharpner added, seated against the tree that bore the fruit. The only reason he was even there was because Videl didn't want the guy lunging at her when he came to. Vines were currently wrapped around the blond man, securing him to the trunk of the tree. Though, that didn't stop his eyes from boring holes into the young woman's generous endowment. "I say keep them. You've never looked better."

"Nobody asked you," Videl growled, sounding very similar to Gohan's earlier statement. Returning her attention back to the dark-haired youth, she then asked, "Is there anything else on that plaque? Like someway to reverse this?"

Sharpner let out a strangled gasp. "No! You can't mean that! Arch-Enemy, tell me she's kidding! No way would a sane person not want such beautiful boobies!"

Gohan rolled his eyes. Now he was Arch-Enemy again? When would that guy settle on a name for him, preferably his real one? This changing from enemy to sidekick to meat shield was killing off his last nerve. "I don't know why someone would ever consider such an option," he grumbled loudly in response. "Perhaps you should eat some fruit and grow a pair. Then you can safeguard the boobs for all time."

"Are you nuts?" the blond demanded. "I can't have boobies, I'm a guy! And guys don't get boobs, they get man-boobs, and those are just unsightly."

"Spoken by the man that had breasts awhile ago."

"Will you two quit your snipping," Videl interjected, growing more and more annoyed. "We don't have all day for this."

It was about then that Gohan reached the last line of the plaque, which proved to be the most promising part of it. "Hey, I think I have something," he announced. "It says here that 'For anyone not seeking enhancement, they should go enjoy the many wonders of the Mountain of Modesty.' Maybe that might have something to reverse your…your…"

Unfortunately, Gohan had made the mistake of looking at Videl and quickly found his eyes zeroing on her bosom. Her shirt was barely staying together at this point and the youth found himself wondering how much longer it would stay closed. Buttons could only take so much strain.

That was when Videl turned around, her back facing him. "Damn it, Gohan, they're just breasts," she reprimanded harshly. "There's nothing special about them."

Before Gohan could respond though, Sharpner took the…liberty…in explaining the situation. "But they're yours," he groaned out. "And they're bigger, stronger, faster; able to withstand a full cavalry charge and not be fazed. They are…the bionic boobies."

A deafening silence descended upon the clearing until Videl said, "Do you have any idea just how moronic that sounds?"

To which the blonde retorted, "Do you have any idea how awesome it is?"

With a growl, the young lady reached up and plucked off one of the red fruits from the tree and marched up to the infuriating young man. The entire time, Sharpner stared right at her bouncing melons, his mouth hanging open as drool began to leak out. Shoving the fruit into his mouth, she punctuated it with, "Shut up for awhile, will you? The _adults_ are trying to think."

It took a full minute before Sharpner realized what had happened and began squirming in his bonds, making muffled noises around the fruit. Gohan wisely kept his mouth shut. Nothing good could come from him adding to the direction this conversation went.

Videl made to face the dark-haired youth then, but thought better of that and turned to face away from him again. Apparently she didn't want a repeat of what happened a minute ago. "So this Mountain of Modesty; which one is it?"

Gohan frowned at that. "Which one?"

With a wave of her hand, the young lady indicated the two mountains that loomed above them. "There are two mountains here and I'd rather not have to climb both of them just to find a cure. Does the plaque say which mountain is which?"

Seeing what she meant, Gohan looked back at the plaque and read it again. "No, it doesn't really say," he said at last, sounding disappointed.

"Just perfect," the dark-haired woman growled. "And it's not like there's anyone around here that could point us in the right direction."

That made Gohan perk his head up. "What about the cab driver? He knew where to find this place, right? Maybe he might have an idea what each mountain is?"

Videl was still for a moment before she replied, "That's something at least. Let's head back—"

"Oh gods, this is delicious!"

Both youths snapped their heads to look at Sharpner. The red fruit was out of his mouth and lying on his lap, a large bite missing from it. Fruit juice was dribbling down the blonds chin as he frantically tried to lick it up. "Must…have…more…" he grunted out as he fought against the binding vines.

Gohan flinched at the sight before looking right at the blond man's chest. It was only a matter of seconds now before the guy began growing boobs…again. It had happened instantly with Videl, though admittedly she ate the whole thing. Who knew how much growth would occur with one bite. All they had to do was wait.

Yep, just wait.

And wait.

Any second now.

Annnnny second.

Annnnnnd nothing. Huh.

"You know, I was expecting something to happen," Gohan spoke up, a hand going to the back of his head and scratching it. "But it doesn't look like anything will."

"Yeah, me too," Videl agreed. A scowl then appeared on her face. "Don't tell me these things only work on women."

"Well, it did say only insecure people should eat the fruit," Gohan pointed out. "I guess that means—"

"If you value your life, you'll stop right there," Videl warned, her voice dropping several octaves. In fact, the very air around them seemed colder.

Before they could continue on that line of thought though, Sharpner began whining loudly, not that was new or anything. "Let me have some moooooore," he complained, kicking his feet like a little child. "Please guys? Pretty please? I just want to eeeeeeeeeeat."

With an aggrieved sigh, Videl began walking away from the tree, putting distance between her and Sharpner. "Cut him loose, Gohan."

Watching the young lady, Gohan was a bit startled by the order, but then shrugged his shoulders. There wouldn't be any harm in it, right? Besides, Videl could take care of herself if Sharpner decided to make a run at her assets. Instead, he pulled out the dagger he kept in his boot and walked up to the tree. Sawing the vines, he only managed to cut half of them before Sharpner ripped the rest off of him. Almost frantically, he snatched the fruit lying on his lap and proceeded to gobble it up, greedily and loudly devouring every last bit of it. It was almost disturbing to watch, but it was just one of those scenes you couldn't look away from.

The moment the blond was finished with that fruit, he leapt up onto his feet and snatched another piece of fruit from the tree, immediately chowing down on it. Glancing up, Gohan faintly wondered if he should try one since everyone else had. That thought led him to remembering what he was here for. He had yet to collect any fruit for the Lady Eighteen.

Picking one of the fruit off, he glanced at it for a moment, faintly desiring to eat it. He stuffed it into his pocket instead, but paused for a second. How many of these fruits did the Lady want? Was one enough? Deciding to err on the side of caution, he picked out two more and stuffed one into the same pocket as the first one, and the other into a different pocket. There now, he could now try one out—

"Who made my pants tight?" Sharpner suddenly demanded.

That interrupted Gohan's musings, forcing him to look right at the blond's pants. It was at that moment that he realized that the fruit did in fact have an effect on men.

* * *

The cab driver looked at Gohan expectantly as he emerged from the valley. He was all alone at the moment, mostly because Videl refused to leave the tree line in the event their driver suddenly found himself distracted by a pair of jiggling breasts. Approaching the man, Gohan ran a hand through his hair as the youth gave him a tired smile. "I don't suppose you know which mountain is the Mountain of Modesty, do you?" he asked loudly.

The cab driver stared at him blankly for a moment before replying, "They're both the modesty mountains."

Gohan was taken back by that response. There were two of the same mountain? Why? Why would someone name them both the same name? "Why two?" he couldn't help but ask.

The driver rolled his eyes as if the answer was obvious. "One is kid-friendly and the other isn't."

 _Kid-friendly?_ _These people…_ Gohan shook his head to ward off the thoughts. "So it doesn't matter which mountain we go up, right?"

"Of course it does. One mountain is for kids and the other is for adults," the driver retorted snidely. "If you're over a certain age, you can't climb it. Simple as that."

"What if you think like a little kid?" the dark-haired youth countered.

The cab driver was getting a bit irritated by now. "What makes you—"

"Siiiiiiiiiidekick," a loud, obnoxious voice rang out, causing both men to look towards the valley. Emerging from the overgrowth was a hunched-over Sharpner, his pants barely clinging to his thighs due to a large bulge in his crotch. The blond had both of his hands under the bulge in a sad attempt to carry it. "I ate too much fruit!" he wailed shamelessly. "I got too big. I goooooooot toooooooo biiiiiiiig!"

"Oh," the cab driver simply said, captivated by the sad sight. "Maybe you can use the kid-friendly one."

Though that was some good news, Gohan really didn't want to think about how he would climb the mountain. The moment Sharpner had realized that the fruit had enlarged his manhood, he had proceeded to eat even more fruit to make sure he made himself bigger. When he finally got to a size he liked, it became very apparent that he wasn't able to move as he pleased. After a few strange attempts, the blond had zeroed in on Gohan and demanded that he help carry his package, since it was part of the sidekick job.

There were things that Gohan wasn't proud of doing during his lifetime, but if given the choice he'd do them again. But he drew the line at carrying another man's junk. That was guy code 101.

And the dark-haired youth was not looking forward to telling Videl what he had found out. In order to go up the kid-friendly mountain, they'd have to stick with Sharpner and if they stuck with him, Gohan knew he'd have to help carry him. Then again, Videl just might refuse to be with the blond longer than necessary and go up the other mountain. One could hope.

Glancing to the driver and finding him still staring at the whining Sharpner, Gohan moved to the carriage and opened the door. Pulling out the red fruit, he tossed them onto one of the seats and shut the door. Considering those were the cause of this whole mess, he didn't want to have to go running around with them in his pockets. He might actually slip up and eat one and put himself in the same situation as the others.

With the carriage door closed, he then walked back towards the tree line, blatantly ignoring Sharpner's further calls for help. He'd blame it later on being confused as to who the blond wanted—after all, his name seemed to change with the winds. Reaching the trees, the youth quickly located Videl as she leaned against a tree, staring into the valley.

"Well, they're both the same mountain," Gohan said as he stood next to the woman.

"How the heck are they the same mountain?" Videl asked in disbelief. "Unless my eyes are deceiving me, there are two mountains."

"One's kid-friendly."

The dark-haired lady gave him an incredulous look. "And the other?"

"Not kid-friendly."

She looked away from the young man, shaking her head as if to ward off the odd things he was saying. "So what exactly does that mean?"

"Well, from what I can tell, you have to be of a certain age to take one of them. Then Sharpner showed up and the driver said we might be able to use him to use the kid-friendly one."

"Because he acts like a kid," Videl summed up, nodding her head as if it made sense. "Alright, we'll just have to lead him to one of the mountains."

Gohan raised an eyebrow at that. "Lead him?"

"Do you want to stand next to him while he demands that you carry his balls?" Videl asked him pointedly. "Or would you rather have some distance between you and him as he chases us? I know which one I'd take."

Gohan stared at the young lady before turning on his heels and walking towards one of the mountains. "This is some weather we're having, huh?" he called out from over his shoulder.

A smirk appeared on Videl's face as she began following him. "Wise choice."

* * *

It had been an innocuous statement; just something said to fill up the silence, or at the very least change the subject. It wasn't meant to jinx them.

Dark clouds loomed over the three, slowly, but surely, bloating out the sun and casting a dreary light over the mountainside. Gohan and Videl had been hiking up a trail—one that was currently running near the edge of one of the mountains and allowed for quite a view of the terrain—that led straight up the mountain when the sky had gone from a clear, cloudless blue to a darkening overcast. Though while they had noticed the change in atmospheric conditions, their tagalong hadn't until a giant, black cloud hovered over them.

"I swear to all of the gods and their annoying pets, Sidekick, if you don't slow down and help me, we're all gonna get struck by lightning!" Sharpner raged loudly. What could have been a nice, peaceful walk had been filled with the blond's whining. But then, what else could have been expected with the likes of him following you?

"We should probably find shelter somewhere," Gohan commented as he stared up at the sky.

"You think?" Videl questioned sarcastically. "We need to find something soon. Water and white shirts do not mix."

This made Gohan frown and look towards the woman. "Why not?"

"Because water makes white transparent."

 _Transparent? Really?_ Gohan dropped his eyes to Videl's shirt and briefly wondered what that would look like, which lead to him zeroing in on her bust size. Great Kami above, they were big…

"Finally!" Sharpner shouted right next to him. "Here, hold my junk."

From that jarring statement, Gohan blinked his eyes. When they opened, he was several feet away from the scowling blond and backing away. "Hey, hold still!" the blond demanded as he waddled towards the dark-haired youth. "These balls won't carry themselves!"

An ominous roar of thunder echoed over the landscape as Gohan backed away from the approaching blond man. "Sharpner, I'm not touching…that."

"Then what good are you? A sidekick is supposed to help a hero out when needed!"

"But aren't heroes supposed to carry their troubles alone? You know, to make them stronger and wiser and…stuff."

"Then heroes wouldn't have sidekicks if that were the case," Sharpner countered, speaking as if he were talking to a child. "A sidekick is supposed to assist a hero in carrying his burden. Didn't you learn that at sidekick school? I swear, they'll let anyone graduate from that place."

All the while, Videl watched on as Gohan backed away from Sharpner, who was able to match him step for step as he tried to get closer. "This is like watching a twelve carriage pileup," she commented after awhile. "You just can't look away."

Another roar of thunder occurred, but this time was followed by another sound, one that grew louder with every passing second. Raindrops began falling from the sky and splattered on the ground or various vegetation. It was light at first and slowly became a steady fall. This promptly led Videl to looking up at the sky in disgust. "Aw man," she loudly complained.

"Now look what you did, Sidekick!" Sharpner bellowed. "Now you're getting my junk wet. Quit being a pansy and do your job already!"

Gohan felt torn. The souring moods of his companions were making this day worse and worse. If only there was…there was…there…was…

"Uhh, Sharpner?" he asked cautiously. "Are you getting smaller?"

Indeed he was. Due to the rainfall, the blond's body part acted in self-preservation, shrinking itself like it would if submerged in cold water. Although it was still quite big and noticeable, it was definitely more manageable. Still, Sharpner wasn't one to take such an insult sitting down. "Hey, it's cold out here! I'm not like a chick when it gets…gets…" he trailed off.

Slowly then, the blond turned to look at Videl. Curious as to why, Gohan looked as well and found himself once more staring at the lady's boobs, though it seemed they were more…pointed?

Videl just stared at the two young men blandly for a moment before she realized something was amiss. Glancing down, she quickly figured out what held their attention and spun around to hide the evidence. Exaggeratedly, her breasts swung to one side and then the other and back again until she stilled the motion by crossing her arms over them. "Will you two grow up already?" she snapped in irritation. "Seriously, what's so great about big breasts? They're just…"

She fell silent for a moment. "Hey, is that a building?"

Spell broken, Gohan lifted his eyes from the woman's back and spied a structure rising up over the trees. He wasn't too sure what it was, but he was willing to bet it had a roof. They could go there to get out of the rain! As if on cue, the two dark-haired youths quickly walked towards it, leaving the trail. Fortunately, the drop-off from the terrain wasn't steep, so they carefully made their way down the embankment before entering the woods. It took a whole thirty seconds before Sharpner realized they had moved before he began complaining again.

"Hey, don't leave me! Sidekick, get back here and perform your duty! Siiiiiiiiidekiiiiiiiiick!"

* * *

To Zerolink100: Yes, one can hope. But with a story like this, where's the fun in that?

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	13. Sisterhood of Purity

The building was comprised of large stones and masonry. It was large and square with a sloping roof and a small tower sticking out at the front. If Gohan had to call it anything, it looked like a monastery, though why such a place was out here was beyond him. Usually these sorts of places were right next to the village, assuming they were even allowed in the first place. Still, it was a place to get out of the rain and beggars couldn't be choosers.

Walking right up to the large doors, Gohan pressed his hands against the wooden surface and pushed. With a loud groaning sound, the doors swung open, albeit resistant. He was only able to make enough room for the three of them to slip in, although Videl and Sharpner had to maneuver their bodies to do so.

However, once they were standing in a large stone room with wooden benches forming columns up and down the floor space, the doors swung shut with a loud boom. The traveling three ignored it though, as they took in the sights of the room. Most of the light source for the gloomy room came from candles positioned along the walls. There was a sizeable amount towards the opposite side of the chamber where a large altar had been constructed. From what Gohan could make of it, it was some sort of worship for a god, Kami from the looks of it.

However, they weren't alone. Standing in front of the altar were figures in dark robes, and white circular cloths around their necks and the underside of their hoods. Due to the distance and the hoods, their faces were shrouded by darkness, making them hard to identify.

One of them greeted them loudly in a loud, kind voice. "Welcome to the Sisterhood of Purity. What brings thou weary travelers to our monastery?"

Gohan pointed to the doors behind him and answered, "We were just seeking shelter from the rain. We hope we're not inconveniencing you."

"On the contrary, it has been a very long since we've received visitors." At this, the robed women began approaching the three. There were a lot more than Gohan had first realized as many seemed to appear out of nowhere, surrounding him and his friends. "We offer our hospitality to all who are in need."

Although the sudden emergence of so many robed women was discerning, the kind words spoken were soothing to the ear. It had been a long time since Gohan had been offered such hospitality and a part of him was looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, that sentiment wasn't shared by someone in his company. "Nuns," Sharpner spat out with revulsion. "Of all the places I've been dragged to, one had to be a place with nuns."

Videl instantly shot an elbow into the blond man's ribs. She harshly reprimanded, "There's nothing wrong with choosing to be a nun. The world would be better off if we had more of them."

"Oh really? A bunch of old ladies finding a reason not to get laid would make the world a better place?" Sharpner countered lowly, for once not shouting his mind. Considering he was insulting the entire sisterhood here, that was for the best. "Yeah, I bet you my hidden stash of gold that's the reason these nuns are on this mountain. They couldn't find anyone wanting to get down and dirty with them."

"I swear to all things holy, if you don't keep your mouth shut, I will rip out your tongue and feed it to you."

Yeah, this wasn't going well with his companions. Choosing to ignore them, the dark-haired youth kept his eyes on the approaching nuns. It was then that the face of one of the closer robed women was illuminated and promptly sent a shock through Gohan's system. She…she was…hideous. Large wrinkles threatened to bury her facial features aside from a nose the size of his fist. By all the gods that was one big schnauzer!

Glancing to another woman, the young man saw similar features. In fact, all of these were downright dog-ugly! Little kids would've been terrified by these faces!

Videl and Sharpner's bickering went quiet at that point. That was until the blond said, "What did I tell ya?"

"Shut it, moron," the dark-haired girl hissed.

"Now, now," one of the nuns said. "One must never speak in anger nor point out the flaws of another. It is unbecoming."

Gohan watched as all of the women eyed him, which made him feel quite uncomfortable. It wasn't that they were suspicious or anything like that, it was just the attention was overwhelming. Considering what happened next, perhaps it would've been better had they kept staring at him.

It was as if they were one being. One moment they were staring at Gohan and the next they turned their heads to view Videl. The instant they had, their bodies stiffened and their eyes zeroed in on the lady's bosom. An uncomfortable silence descended upon the chapel.

And then, "Harlot," all of the women sneered, the chorus of their voices thoroughly rubbing in their disdain. The nun with the large nose, who seemed to be the leader now, said, "How dare you bring your wicked ways to our sacred grounds."

"Hey, what happened to not speaking in anger?" Videl shot back, crossing her arms over her boobs in a poor attempt to cover them.

"The Sisterhood of Purity will not condone the lascivious actions of young women today to taint our halls," the nun continued to reprimand. "One must _never_ , under any circumstance, reveal their bodies to the eyes of others. It is sin to do so."

"Now you listen here," Videl growled back, her anger beginning to rear its head again. "I didn't want these ridiculously-sized…ummm…breasts. In fact, I'm climbing this mountain to get rid of them!"

The nuns were silent before they all nodded their approval at Videl's declaration. "You have taken upon yourself a monumental task. For that we applaud you."

"Yeah, great, thanks."

Ignoring the sarcasm from the dark-haired lady, they then moved their collective attention to Sharpner. And then promptly dropped their eyes to his bulging groin. The bulging groin that the blond was preening about at that very moment.

"Bet you haven't seen any this big before," he grinned proudly.

Another silence descended before it was broken by a couple of the more weak-kneed nuns fainting at the sight. They had made high-pitched gasping sounds before dropping to the floor like rocks. "You will never learn," the lead nun growled darkly, her beady eyes glaring at Sharpner.

"I believe you three must be punished."

That was when several hands latched onto the Gohan, the same with Videl and Sharpner. The next thing either of them knew, they were being dragged through the cathedral and to another room. Taken back, Gohan just watched with wide eyes as he heard Videl protesting their manhandling. "Hey, what's the big idea? What are you doing to us?"

As they were forced into a rather dank, dreary room, Gohan found himself being forced onto a bench, a small desk situated in front of him. There was also a small wooden stock on the desk, the top plank open. There were only two semi-circles cut into the each part of the stock, which was odd to the young man as most had three, two for the hands and one for the head. This didn't bother the nuns at all as they forced his hands into the groves and slammed the top plant on top. Attaching an obscenely large lock to it, they locked Gohan's hands into the device. Blankly, the young man stared at the wooden structure, wondering what the heck was going on.

The bench shifting beneath him tore him from his thoughts though, forcing him to look to his right and see the nuns wrestling a struggling Videl. Beyond them, Sharpner was already locked in, much like Gohan. Seemed the two of them hadn't put up much of a fight. As for Videl, two nuns had wrapped themselves around the young girl's waist, keeping her seated on the bench despite her legs kicking wildly. Four more were fighting with her to place her arms in the stock, something they struggled with even as Videl cursed at them with some rather foul language. In fact, Gohan wasn't even sure the censorship symbols would cover each curse.

Another nun quickly ran up to them then and grabbed onto the open plank of the stock. "Get her arms in, Sisters!" she ordered sternly.

"We're trying!" one of the nuns shouted back, slowly forcing one of Videl's arms into a groove.

"You fat [beep!] Let me go or I'll [beep] your [beep] [beep]!" Videl shouted.

Huh, perhaps the censors could work.

Finally, the stock was shut closed and another lock firmly attached. Still, Videl continued to twist and turn in her restraints until she figured out she wouldn't be getting out. That took awhile though, but when she finally stopped, she began glaring at the ugly, old women.

"It is unfortunate that it has come to this," the lead nun spoke up, her habit ruffled and slightly out of place. Guess she had assisted in locking up Videl. "But to all that desecrate the sanctity of this house of worship, you must be punished."

And with that, the nuns began to file out, leaving the three all alone. A silence fell on them until Gohan felt the urge to break it. "I didn't see this coming."

Videl turned her head to scowl at him. "Just shut up, Gohan. I'm not in the mood for anymore useless comments."

"My thoughts exactly."

The voice had been crisp and stern. Looking towards the front corner of the room, a new nun stood in front of a door, a long ruler in her hands. Unlike the other nuns here, this one actually had a youthful face—one could even say it was beautiful. She began walking towards the three, the sound of her high-heeled shoes clicking on the stone floor.

However, this young nun's habit was slightly different from the others. For one, there was a slit in the robe that went up past her knee, allowing a rather shapely leg to appear with each step it took.

Which is what Sharpner immediately took notice of. With a wolf-whistle, he said, "I want to know what else is under that ugly dress."

This immediately got the nun's attention as she altered her course, heading towards and eventually stopping right in front of the blond. Ominously, she tapped her ruler against her palm. "And this is exactly the reason you were brought to me for punishment."

Sharpner waggled his eyebrows at the nun as he leered at her. "Oh, you can punish me any—"

With a swing, the nun slapped the ruler against Sharpner's knuckles with a sharp _whack_ , eliciting a howl of pain from the blond. "Ow!" he screamed as his hands and wrists began twisting in the stock. "Why did you—"

Another sharp _whack_ occurred, once more followed by a pained scream. "Stop that! Quit—!"

 _Whack!_

"Seriously, stop—!"

 _Whack!_

"Stop, I'm beggin—!"

 _Whack!_

"Please…please stop…"

The nun held the ruler at the ready, staring down at the battered blond as he pitifully flinched from her. The knuckles of his hands were bright red from the abuse they had taken. Once she was sure the blond would not be making another sound, she said, "Now then, as I was saying, you three must be punished and it is my job to see it is done." Turning her attention to Gohan and Videl, she then asked, "So who shall go next?"

"Can it please not be me?" Sharpner asked meekly.

Slowly, the nun turned her head and stared impassively at the blond. A second later her ruler rapped the young man's knuckles once more, causing him to cry out again. Returning her stare to the dark-haired youths, she then pressed, "Well? I'm waiting."

Gohan looked to Videl, who was still facing the nun, albeit timidly. It seemed they all were going to get Sharpner's treatment, whether they wanted to or not. Swallowing, it was with great reluctance that the young man said, "I'll go."

The nun nodded her head and moved to stand in front of him, her deadly ruler resting in her hands. Looking up at her nervously, he added, "I'm sorry about the commotion my friends made, for what it's worth. We shouldn't have disturbed your…uhh…place here."

"It is good that you seek forgiveness," the nun said, still in her dispassionate tone. "But it is necessary that discipline be meted out. Those who have sinned must not believe they can simply get out of punishment by making false pleas." Raising her ruler up, she drew it back, ready to use it.

Gohan straightened out his posture as he tried to put on a brave face. "I'm ready. Do what you have to do."

And it seemed like the nun would do just that. Yet, she seemed to hesitate before she dropped her arm, her face softening as she gazed at the young man. "No, I believe I will not have to. You truly are repentant."

"Hey! What's this? Why are you going easy on Arch Enemy?!" Sharpner shouted in disbelief. "If there's anyone that deserves to be tortured, it's him!"

Instantly, the nun was stern once more, staring down the blond. Immediately, Sharpner shrunk in on himself, cowering once more. "What does he mean by 'Arch Enemy'?" she asked carefully.

Gohan shrugged his shoulders. "No idea. He's been calling me that for awhile now. Then he'll call me Sidekick when he wants something out of me. It's kinda hard keeping up with it all."

"I see…" A pause. "And how long have you known him?"

"At least a year, though it could have been longer. He acts like he knew me, but I don't really remember much of anything before that."

"Before what? How much do you remember?"

Gohan could feel himself growing more comfortable. Perhaps it helped that he wasn't on the bad end of that ruler. "About a year. Everything before that is just blank."

"You lost your memory," the nun summed up, looking thoughtful now. "It would seem you are already being punished for a previous sin."

Gohan hid the wince he felt. He had always wondered why he couldn't remember much and the idea that perhaps he had done something rather naughty had been a passing thought at most. To have someone express that they believe that was the exact reason left him with a sinking feeling in his stomach, not something he liked to feel.

"That just leaves you," the nun suddenly said, turning to face a wide-eyed Videl. It seemed the disciplinarian had returned in full force. "I don't believe there will be a stay of your punishment."

And then the ruler came down.

* * *

Gohan knew people could be traumatized by extreme experiences. However, he had never heard of people being distressed by nuns. In a way, this was a first for him.

As the comforting noises of the forest chirped all around him, the young man glanced behind him at his travel companions. Videl and Sharpner had been eerily quiet since they left the church, though he imagined a lot of that had to do with their throbbing hands.

Videl had her hands stiffly at her sides, doing her best not to make any sudden movements with them. Even from where he walked, Gohan could see the red swelling that marred her knuckles. It was a clear reminder of the fate he had narrowly dodged out of some wild stroke of luck. Perhaps there really was a Kami person up there somewhere…

However, if he was wincing from Videl's pain, he was suppressing shivers from Sharpner's. Both hands were wrapped with white bandages, forming balls over them. If one had assumed the blond had learned his lesson after his first round of whackings, well, that person was very wrong. Short memory span fully described the entire scene as Sharpner would cower away from the disciplinarian nun and then suddenly make a pass at her. Had the nun not broken her ruler, the three of them would surely have still been at that cathedral, listening to Sharpner's mangled cries. In hindsight, it was actually pretty kind of the other nuns to bandage him up.

And yet, that brought on a whole new set of annoyances.

"Would you two look at this?" Sharpner demanded as he waved his bandaged hands around dramatically. "Do you see this? My beautiful hands! They're ruined!"

"And whose fault is that?" Videl grumbled backed. "Oh wait, that was you. Now quit your belly-aching. You're giving me a migraine."

"Never!" the blond shouted with indignation. "No, I will not stand for this, not when I get brutally attacked by some hot nun who refused to meet me later for some nookie and my useless sidekick doesn't even get a scratch! Where is the justice in that, huh? Huh?!"

Videl looked as if she were about to reply to that when Gohan stepped in to stop her. "Just let it go, Videl. He's gonna keep going for awhile."

"And what do you suggest we do?" At this, the dark-haired woman turned her irritated face towards him. "Ignore him?"

With a shrug of his shoulders, Gohan replied, "That's what I do."

"Well sorry, but when I hear stupidity, every fiber in my being screams to silence it forever."

"Not really doing a good job there, are you?"

A scowl appeared on Videl's face. "I would so hit you right now if it weren't for my aching hands."

"Hey, both of you quit your meaningless chatter and listen to me!" Sharpner bellowed then. "Can't either of you see I'm having a crisis here? How the heck am I supposed to do Big Sharpner's business like this? It could take me a week before I can do anything!"

"Oh, woe is you," Videl retorted snidely. "I guess you'll just have to wait. I'm sure this will let your chaffing heal before you start on it again."

"Ha, ha, you're very funny," the blond man deadpanned. "No really, you should become a court jester and entertain the masses until your lord cuts your head off because there's no possible way you could out-funny yourself."

The dark-haired girl chose to ignore that, instead opting to say to Gohan, "You know, we should really consider dumping him somewhere. The frustration is just not worth it."

"I wish we could," the young man replied warily. "But he would just show up again sooner or later and we'd be right back where we started."

There was a moment of silence before Videl groaned loudly. "I hate when you make sense, especially with that idiot."

"Oh hey! I have a great idea!"

Coming to a stop, the dark-haired youths turned and looked back at Sharpner, who looked as if he had stumbled upon gold. Oddly enough, he was looking right at Videl. "You could do Big Sharpner's business!" he proclaimed excitedly, his eyes focusing right on her enlarged bosom. "You can even use those lovely melons!"

For a moment, Gohan thought he felt the surrounding area cool dramatically, causing him to shiver. Where had all the heat gone? It was like it hightailed it out of there. And then he heard an unnaturally low voice come from Videl. "You ever think that again and I'll rip it off and burn it in front of you, then rub salt in your bloodied crotch before I break every single bone in your hands so you can never touch anything without feeling pain."

Sharpner was silent for a brief moment. Then, "You could have just said no."

Gohan just shook his head and kept walking. Some moments just weren't worth dwelling upon and this was one of them. This whole side trip was turning out to be nothing short of disastrous. He wanted it over as soon as possible and the only way to do that was to find another tree with magical fruit. Now where was that…

The young man came to a stop. Up ahead was a tree, must like the first one. However, the fruit was not nearly as appealing as the last one. They limply hung from their branches, a sickly blue color. There were a lot more of these fruits though—much more than the red fruits and Gohan could certainly understand why. Who would want to eat something that sorry looking?

"Umm, guys?" the young man said out loud before pointing a finger right at the tree. "I think we found what we were looking for."

Instantly, Videl was at his side. "Really? Where?" she demanded as she turned her head from side to side in search of the tree. When she zeroed in on it, her eager face dropped. "You've got to be kidding me. I have to eat that?"

"I guess it would make sense," Gohan replied as he began rubbing his chin. "The last tree had really good-looking fruit and was in the Valley of Vanity. Bad things usually look good. So if bad things look good, good things look bad. We've had to climb a—"

"Gohan, I got it," Videl interrupted, raising a hand up to silence him. "I'm just gonna get this over with." The young woman then began walking right up to the tree. Gohan would have gone with her, but he felt it best to keep some distance between them in the off chance he was wro—oh crap, he hadn't even considered if this was the right tree!

"Hey! What if this is the wrong tree?" he called out after the woman. It was better to do this than to wait for something else to go wrong, or so he reasoned.

Videl came to a screeching halt, her body cringing from the thought. "Oh, you wait until now to bring that up," she grumbled loudly. "Thanks a lot."

Gohan moved a hand to the back of his head and began to scratch it. "Sorry."

"You better be. It's not like we have something to test it on."

"Sidekick, I'm tired of carrying my junk," Sharpner suddenly said. "It's your turn now."

At the sound of the blond's voice, the two dark-haired youths had looked at him. Then they glanced at each other before looking right back at him. "I stand corrected," Videl said.

Almost as if they had it planned out, Videl slipped towards the tree while Gohan waited for Sharpner to reach him. "How many times have I told you, your duty as a sidekick is to do the things that I don't want to do. Now carry your burden!"

Gohan rolled his eyes. Yeah, as if they hadn't been over this several times before. "You know, I thought I was your Arch Nemesis or something."

Sharpner gave him an incredulous look as he replied, "I don't even know what that word mean, Arch."

The dark-haired youth opened his mouth to tell the blond its definition before a thought occurred to him. What _did_ arch mean anyways? It was most certainly an architectural design, but how one could attach it to enemy and get something more serious was puzzling. Huh, who knew the guy could make a point? It wasn't like there was some kind of book they could use to figure it out either. This required further investigation.

That would be put on the backburner though as Videl saddling right up next to the two men. "Okay, I'm ready," she simply said, much to the confusion of one of them.

"Ready for what?" Sharpner questioned.

Instantly, Gohan was behind the blond, arms wrapping around the man and keeping him still. "I got him!"

Sharpner didn't know what was going on and immediately began struggling. "What is this?! What are you doing? Let me go, Arch Enemy!"

And there was that word again.

Videl took the couple of steps that placed her right before the squirming blond and raised the blue fruit in her hand. With one motion, she shoved the fruit into the blond's mouth, silencing him. "Eat this," was all she said to him. When Sharpner's began making muffled protestations, the dark-haired woman shoved her hand beneath his chin and pushed up. "Come on, we don't have all day. Eat it!"

To make a short story shorter, Sharpner ended up reluctantly eating the blue fruit. Once they saw a large lump work its way down the blond's throat, they finally released him and stared right at his groin to make sure it worked. Sharpner, however, wasn't one to simply let such treatment go without complaining. "You almost suffocated me!" he screamed once he caught his breath. "I swear to Kami above, I will find a pro bono lawyer and sue you both!'

"Whatever," Videl brushed off. "Just keep still. We need to make sure this stuff actually works."

"Make sure what stuff works how?"

Though it wasn't as instantaneous as the red fruit, the blue fruit indeed work. The humongous bulge in Sharpner's pants began to shrink after awhile. It didn't remove the entire growth, but considering how much red fruit the blond had consumed, it was to be expected.

"Okay, here's the plan," Videl proclaimed the moment they had their proof. "We need to feed him more of the fruit to get rid of that ridiculous ego."

"Umm, don't you mean penis?"

"Yes, his ego." Videl gave him a blank look that said he should've known they were one and the same. "I also have to eat one to get back to normal too, so I'll eat first and then we'll take care of the moron here, agreed?"

"No, I don't agree with this!" Sharpner screamed as he began thrashing about. "You can't make me do this! I won't do this! Release me now, Arch Enemy, or I will lay a smackdown so hard on you, your grandkids will feel it!"

Videl rolled her eyes. "Oooh, he's so scared. Arch Enemy, keep holding him."

Gohan stared at the dark-haired girl in disbelief. "But my name is Gohan."

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

* * *

To Zerolink100: Almost, but not quite, right? Cause then chapters like this show up and slap you upside the head with it lol.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved.


	14. Answer Me This

The carriage came to an abrupt stop. The door flew open and Videl rushed out, her hands over her chest as she attempted to keep her ruined shirt shut. Gohan climbed out of the carriage at a more sedate pace, though he was quite weary. His travel companion had made it abundantly clear that they had to stop at the nearest village for some clothes. No way was she traveling with her bosom hanging out.

That was gonna be quite hard considering the dark-haired woman had eaten some of the blue fruit. However, Videl wasn't completely convinced she had returned to her normal size, claiming her boobs were still too big. However, she hadn't been willing to eat any more of the fruit in fear that perhaps she would shrink herself too much. Gohan had wisely kept quiet—he honestly couldn't tell if she was bigger or smaller than before, what with having no frame of reference. Videl had been using bindings to make herself look flat-chested while masquerading as a boy. It wasn't as if he had seen her naked either since he realized that she was indeed a woman and not a gay man.

So here they were, standing at what the carriage driver claimed was a place to get clothes. Seeing as Videl had already entered, Gohan strolled on in. Upon entering the wooden building, he found himself surrounded by shelves with various pieces of clothing placed in them. Shirts, pants, dresses, belts, boots, shoes, you name it, it was there.

Glancing towards what appeared to be the side with the most female clothes, the young man was quite surprised to not see Videl there. Turning his head to look at the other side of the store, he found the dark-haired woman rifling through various men's clothes. Frowning, Gohan walked up to his companion.

"Umm, Videl?" he asked as he reached her. "Why are you over here?"

Videl didn't bother looking up as she searched through a stack of folded white shirts. "I'm finding a shirt," she replied flippantly to him. "And I can't say I'm impressed with the styles I'm seeing."

Shirts had styles? Huh. Brushing that odd remark away, Gohan said, "Why don't you go through the woman's section? Wouldn't they have stuff more…uhh…suited for you?"

The dark-haired woman paused in her search before glancing towards him. "You do remember the reason why I went around dressed as a boy, right?"

"Is the correct answer yes?"

Videl rolled her eyes as she turned back to the clothes, starting in on another stack. "A woman roaming the kingdoms would have drawn a lot of unwanted attention, especially from people with unsavory intentions," she reminded him, her voice surprisingly calm. "No one would have paid any attention to a young man walking around all by their self. Since it's worked so far, I might as well keep dressing that way."

Gohan really couldn't see any fault in that logic, though it did cause him to begin scratching the back of head. "So you don't want to go back to what you usually wear?"

"If it's bothering you so much, why don't you go wear a dress?" came the retort. "I'm sure they have something in your size."

Gohan just kept his mouth shut. There was no reason to further argue about such a mundane subject. If Videl wanted to dress as a guy, then she would dress like one. Though, it would be interesting to see her in a dress. He hadn't really seen her dressed like one before…excluding the bunny outfit. Hmmm, if only that was the only outfit in this shop…

So lost in thought, Gohan didn't notice Videl picking out what she deemed as suitable clothing and disappear into one of the changing stalls. The young man didn't even notice when she emerged fully dress, her ruined clothes in a bundle in her arms, and walked up to the counter where the store owner was and paid for the outfit. It wasn't until she was standing right next to him and coughing loudly to get his attention that he was snapped out of his musings. "Now that I have your attention," she said dryly, "it's time to get out of here."

Looking down at the smaller woman and taking in her yellow shirt and what appeared to be a tight blue undershirt, the semi-long sleeves being the only things covering her upper arms. Nodding his head, he followed her out of the store as her knee-high boots clunked on the wooden floor. "I suppose we're to head back to the Lady Eighteen?" he stated questioningly.

Videl tilted her head back to eye him from the corner of her eye. "This whole fruit thing was for her, right?" she deadpanned. She then came to a stop just at the threshold of the store's door and turned her body more to face him, giving him a stony stare. "If we just went through this for no apparent reason except to give me a bigger rack, I will strangle you here and now."

Gohan quickly nodded his head. "Yeah, it was completely for her." His eyes flickered down to her chest, mostly to see if the young woman was right about her new asset size. Apparently she had already bound herself as she appeared just as flat as before though. He really must've been lost in thought if she had enough time to change and wrap herself without him realizing it.

Videl nodded her head before resuming exiting the store, the dark-haired young man following her quickly. "Let's just get this over with. We've already spent too much time on this."

* * *

Fortunately, they didn't have much trouble returning to Turtle lands. Once they had crossed the Ribbon-Turtle boarder, Videl had relaxed some, and in turn so did Gohan. Having a travel companion that was irritated with you was not the best company, especially on a boring journey.

With that time though, Gohan tried to put it to good use. For instance, he wondered about that girl in his memory, the one that had seemed so concerned for him. Where was she now? Someplace good hopefully. It would have been a shame if she was in some nasty situation, much like the one he was involved with. She really didn't deserve to have to handle that.

Then again, neither did Videl, yet here she was. Perhaps when they got to wherever they were going, he could thank her. It had to be a pain to have to keep changing her plan because he kept directing them the wrong way. Then again, how was he supposed to know what she wanted? It wasn't like he was a mind reader and knew exactly what she wanted.

Okay, so maybe thinking about some girl he only met once and comparing her to Videl wasn't a good use of his time. He hadn't really had all that much time to think of such things though, due to all the craziness the young man seemed to get caught up in. That wasn't including Sharpner either, amazingly enough.

Speaking of whom, the blond was not in the carriage with them. After they had shrunk him back to normal, he had claimed he was _way_ too small and had set off to find more of the red fruit to restore himself. Apparently, Sharpner believed the shrinkage was due to jealousy on Gohan's part and had warned him he would pay for his wrong-doing. There had been no resistance to leaving the guy behind.

Not too much longer, the carriage was rolling down the drive to Lord Roshi's house. Once the carriage came to a stop, Gohan climbed out of it with the fruit wrapped into a bundle using Videl's torn shirt as cover, just in time to see the Lady Eighteen exiting the house in another eye-catching dress. Gohan was pretty sure a corset was apart of this latest outfit and her breasts were _very_ noticeable, if not hard to avoid staring at.

Somehow he tore his eyes away from the beautiful Lady's bosom and looked her in her pleased eyes. Holding the bundle out, he said, "Here's the fruit, uh, my lady?"

Videl stood at his side and rolled her eyes for some reason. "Boys," she muttered in annoyance.

Ignoring what Gohan assumed was a slight, he patiently waited for Lady Eighteen to take the bundle into her own arms and move some of the cloth out of the way for her to look at the fruit. When she found them, she frowned. "There are two different fruit," she said emotionlessly as she looked up at the dark-haired youth, the pleased look long gone.

"There was…an accident," Gohan replied, raising a hand to the back of his head and scratching it. "We had to seek out a fruit that would reverse the effects of the fruit you wanted. So I thought it would be best to bring some of them in case something went wrong."

"How thoughtful of you." At this the Lady held the bundle out to one of the servants, who accepted it and walked back into the house. The young man's explanation hadn't seemed to change the blonde woman's mood. It made Gohan wonder how one talked with such a person. He had done as she asked, despite his better interests, but the Lady had shown she was willing to change her opinion at a whim.

"I suppose a deal is a deal," the Lady Eighteen stated then. "Our accord is complete." Waving a hand to the carriage, she then added, "The coachman will take you anywhere in Turtle territory you wish to go as thanks."

Gohan nodded his acceptance, though Videl seemed to have something to say about that. "Just Turtle? Why not the other kingdoms?"

"As long as you are within this realm, you can and will be protected," the blonde noblewoman informed her. "Once you reach the border, my husband's influence ends. I am certain you of all people know just how disorganized the Demon lands have been for the last several months." At this, Lady Eighteen gave Videl a knowing looking, to which the younger woman stiffen. Looking between then, Gohan felt something was going over his head and no one was going to tell him what that was.

Gathering his courage, he cleared his throat to gain the women's attention and asked, "Would someone tell me what's so bad about the Demon lands? I haven't really been there before."

Another look passed between the women before the blonde noblewoman responded, "There has been upheaval fairly recently in those lands. The lack of stability has made it quite difficult for safe passage for noblemen."

Something in that explanation didn't seem to add up, at least to Gohan it didn't. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he had a gut feeling that he was being lied to deliberately. He didn't like that thought at all. A look at Videl and Lady Eighteen told him that neither one felt the need to further explain to him what was really going on though, so he decided not to press it. For now, anyways.

"Now, if you will excuse me, there are other matters I need to attend to," the Lady said before she curtsied—which gave Gohan a rather lovely eyeful of her bosom again—and returned to the mansion.

The moment she disappeared, Videl spun on her heels to face the dark-haired young man and say, "Well, its best we get going. There's still daylight out, so let's get to it." Without waiting for an answer, she walked back to the carriage, leaving Gohan to trail after her. The young woman only paused long enough to order the coach driver to take them to the Demon border before climbing back into the carriage.

The moment the carriage began moving, Videl let out a deep-suffering sigh. "Thank Kami we're leaving this place."

"You didn't like it here?" Gohan prompted.

"Let's just say I've had enough of these Turtle people, okay? If it weren't for them, we'd be Monkey territory by now and you'd be out of danger."

The young man stared at his travel companion. For some reason he didn't like those words. They came out as being quite…well, selfish. It was as if the dark-haired woman wanted them only thinking about themselves. In an attempt to justify the last several days, he said, "At least we helped them out, right?"

"Yeah, sure, we only did what a number of their servants could have done. None of them have bounties on their heads."

It always came back to that. Frankly, Gohan was getting tired of having Videl rub that in his face every time she wasn't happy with one of his choices. He understood he was in danger. Hell, he had an entire year to figure that out. But that didn't excuse a person from helping others. Besides, they were now riding a carriage all the way to the next kingdom they had to travel through and it was all thanks to doing someone a favor. They were even out of sight for this entire leg!

"It doesn't hurt us to help people," Gohan said, a hint of exasperation in his voice.

Videl leaned her head back until she was looking straight up at the roof of the coach. "We've had this talk before, Gohan," she said warily, "and I'd rather not go over it again. Frankly, I don't really care what problems other people have. I don't see people jumping out of their way to help us; in fact, most of them are just getting in the way."

Gohan was scowling at this. "Then what do you care about? Is there no one you care for, or are you just so jaded that no one is worth your time?"

In hindsight, that may have come off as being nasty, but the young man couldn't help himself. He had met too many people with that self-serving attitude and it had worn his patience for it quite thin. So when Videl's head snapped up so she could look at him, a hurt look on her face that was quickly transforming into anger, he knew he may have spoken too harshly, though he couldn't say he was too regretful. Sometimes you had to get some things off of your chest and this was the perfect time for him.

"I care about you, idiot!" she seethed openly. "I wouldn't be chasing you all over these blasted kingdoms if I didn't!"

"Why do you care then?" he shot back. "You've made it plainly clear that you don't care for anyone else. What makes me so special?"

For a moment, it looked as if Videl was going to tell him exactly why. Her face had twisted in a way that she was about to blurt out her every thought, but stopped before she could. She closed her eyes and began taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself down. When her eyes opened, the young woman had reined in her emotions to a more manageable level. "That doesn't matter."

Before she could continue, Gohan immediately responded, "I think it does. I've never seen you until you were hunting me down and stopping all the other bounty hunters from collecting on the bounty. You've made yourself quite clear that you have no inclination to helping others. So again, why me?"

Now Videl looked troubled, torn even. Eventually she said in a more subdued tone, "I wish I could tell you, Gohan; I really do. But I'm not in a position where I can, not anymore. It's best this way."

"You mean best for you," the dark-haired young man retorted. "I've been in the dark about this from the very beginning and it seems like everyone around me knows what's going on. You, Roshi, even the Lady Eighteen now. You want to protect me, right? Then level with me: what's going on?"

And now his companion was beginning to look frustrated. "All I can tell you is that I'm forbidden from telling you. Trust me, if I could, I would tell you everything, but I can't. It's…it's like there's this spell, okay? And because of this spell, I'm prohibited from talking about it."

"That's a strange spell," Gohan observed, though he really had no clue about spells. He was a dummy when it came to that sort of stuff. Whatever frustrations he had were slowly slipping away. "So there's no way I can find out about this…whatever this is? Even through another person?"

"That's the gist of it," Videl replied, she too relaxing from their outburst.

Well, that was just annoying. Not only did he have to try keeping himself alive now, he had some mystery he needed to solve too. Something told the young man that this mess he found himself in was tied directly to it. Unfortunately, one of the people with direct knowledge was clamming up right in front of him.

So he had to figure this out by himself. Fine, so be it. However, he needed to make sure Videl didn't suspect he was up to that. He needed to distract her beginning now.

"Alright, so could you answer me this?" Gohan began. "Do you have any idea why Sharpner calls me Sidekick?"

* * *

To Zerolink100: Sharpner being Sharpner. When in doubt, you can always used that as an answer lol

RyRy tested; MaMa approved.


	15. The Checkpoint

The further east Gohan and Videl traveled, the more sparse the trees and forest became. The terrain became more rocky and arid the further they went, signifying they were close to entering Demon territory.

Videl seemed very eager about this. The last day she had been urging them to push forward, traveling well into the night. Gohan had the feeling that if she had it her way, they would have gone all night too had he and the coach driver not insisted they needed rest. It had taken much pleading and arguing on their part—but mostly pleading. The dark-haired woman had eventually given in, throwing her hands up in the air in a huff.

But now only yards stood between them and the border checkpoint, the only obstacle between them and setting foot on Demon lands. A wind blew by as a small cloud of sand was kicked up. The sun was out in full force, making the day quite hot. Sweat was running down Gohan's face as he stared at the checkpoint. Their coach had dropped them off about a half-mile away, out of sight of the checkpoint so they could have a chance of making it across. It was established practice for the guards to check out the carriage to make sure contraband wasn't being smuggled over. Such a search would surely out Gohan's presence and he'd be escorted to the nearest jail without hesitation.

So here they were, the dark-haired youth having no clue as to how they were going to cross it. They hadn't really used one yet, despite the fact they had run into one weeks ago. They had chosen to take a route around it, but obviously that hadn't been successful. Now was their second chance at crossing and Gohan was willing to bet they were going to try and sneak across.

That was when he felt something being shoved onto his head. His knees bending from the sudden force, the youth turned to look at Videl's blank face as she stuffed as much of his hair as she could underneath a hood. Once she was satisfied, she then knelt down and ran a hand through the dirt, grabbing as much of it as she could. When she stood back up, she then slapped him on the face with her dirt-filled hand. It was a sharp slap, but it definitely got the young man's attention. "Videl! What are you doing?"

"Disguising you," she replied succinctly. "You're hair is too recognizable, so we have to hide it. The dirt is to make you look like a dirty beggar. The guards won't think twice if you're covered in grime." She was now running her hand all over his face, rubbing the soil down his cheeks and nose, and across his forehead. Gohan had to keep his eyes closed to make sure none of it got in. When she finally removed her hand, he opened them just in time to see her give a satisfied nod.

Then she held up both of her hands in between them, her palms facing him. "And for extra measure…" Videl then began mumbling something; Gohan couldn't quite make out what exactly it was. She then fell silent for a moment before pronouncing, "There. A spell that'll make the guards not want to look at you."

"A what?" Gohan asked bewildered. "Care to explain that?"

"I just put a spell that'll make people not want to look at you closely," the dark-haired girl explained. "Just think of it like this: if a guard looks at you, he'll only do it for a second or so before wanting to look away. That way he won't examine you too thoroughly."

"Okay, why didn't you do that in the first place?"

"To make the spell more effective. You don't stroll up to someone wearing a mask and say 'Hey! Guess who I am!' You change your voice, walk differently, wear different clothing; a lot of effort goes into this stuff. You think I cut my hair and dress like a man because I want to?"

"Oh," Gohan said, humbled. "I guess you're right."

Videl smirked at that. "I always am. Now, hunch over, look at the ground, and don't make eye contact with these guys. You're a tired vagabond that's been beaten up most of his life and people in power scare you."

"Umm, how is that any different than I normally am?"

"If you call inadvertently asking inappropriate comments being scared, then I hate to tell you that you're doing something wrong. Now bend over."

Sighing, Gohan did as he was told. He hunched his shoulders and lowered his head. He even brought his arms into his body in an attempt to make himself look frailer. That pleased Videl as she nodded her head. "Good, now let's get going."

The two of them moved out of their hiding place and began the trek to the checkpoint. It was about halfway there that it occurred to Gohan that they intended on actually using the checkpoint, causing a sinking feeling to fill his gut. What the heck was Videl thinking?! Didn't she say they should avoid any encounters that could expose him?

However, the dark-haired girl didn't seem to mind his quandary, striding confidently to the guards. Gohan had to fight down the rush of fear that began to flood his system. If Videl felt this was a good idea, then she had to have some sort of plan. It would be hypocritical on her part not to have one when she made it abundantly clear in the past how it was dumb of him not to have one. He had to trust she knew what she was doing.

The dark-haired couple soon reached the checkpoint, a couple guards approaching them as one of them indicated they should stop. "What's yer business?" one of them grunted out.

"We wish to pass through," Videl answered simply. "We're just a couple of travelers on our way to the capital."

"The capital, huh? Why do you want to go there?"

"What else? To find some work. Can't find a thing in these Turtle lands, so me and my pal are trying elsewhere."

The second guard looked to Gohan and just as quickly looked away, much to the young man's astonishment. Videl's spell was doing just as she said it would. Suddenly, he started feeling much better about this plan of hers.

"I don't know, you look kind of scrawny for work," the second guard said, then jerked his head towards Gohan. "And he looks like he's worked too damn much."

Videl rolled her eyes. "Who else do you think I meant? That's my worker and I contract out his services. It's not that unusual of a thing."

The guards looked to each other before shrugging their shoulders. "Alright then, move along." They then stepped out of their way, allowing the dark-haired couple to walk passed them and enter the Demon lands. Neither side said anything to the other, which was just as well. Gohan and Videl needed to put some distance between them and the guards and any further conversation would prolong that effort.

In fact, the two youths didn't even speak to one another until they were sure they were a safe distance away from the checkpoint. "See, what'd I tell you?" Videl asked smugly. "Didn't I tell you that'd work?"

"Not really," Gohan replied as he pulled the hood off his head. "You just kinda did it and forced me to tag along."

Videl huffed and looked away from him, crossing her arms over her chest. "You know, a thank you is in order."

Gohan nodded his head. "You're right. Thanks. So where to now?"

That seemed to mollify the young woman even as she looked thoughtful at his question. "We probably should head a little further into the Demon lands before we turn north. In fact, there's a mountain pass we should aim for. It's hardly ever used so there's not a checkpoint there."

That caused Gohan to frown. "Why wouldn't anyone use it, or at least have a guard there?"

"Well, it is a bit dangerous, and that's where the former Demon Lord Piccolo took…" she trailed off then, her eyes widening before she clamped her mouth shut.

That puzzled the dark-haired youth more. "Who's Demon Lord Piccolo?" he inquired. "And why did he use that pass?"

Videl was quiet for several seconds. In fact, her eyes seemed to glaze over as she slowed her pace, coming to a stop. Gohan also paused as he turned around to face her. "What's wrong?" he prodded her.

The woman shook her head to clear it. "Oh, sorry about that. Umm, you remember when that Turtle Lady said there had been some upheaval here?" At seeing his nod, she continued, "He was a part of it at one point and because of it he fled the kingdom, using that pass to get away."

That…didn't make any sense. If he recalled right, the Lady Eighteen had said the unrest was a recent thing. Gohan was pretty sure he would have heard about some nobleman fleeing a kingdom during his travels, so the lack of any such news was baffling to say the least. Videl was lying to him, he could feel it.

Unfortunately, before he could call her out on it, he saw Videl stiffen, but for an entirely different reason. The dark-haired girl wasn't looking at him, instead staring over his shoulder at something behind him. Frowning, Gohan turned around and froze.

A short distance away was that assassin guy, Tao Pai Pai, and he looked very miffed. "I've found you once again," he declared to them, standing proud with his arms behind his back.

 _Oh crud._

Tao Pai Pai took a step towards then, causing the two to take a step back; in Gohan's case, he turned with his step to better face the man. He'd rather not have the guy do something and suddenly have a dozen daggers in his back. That just wasn't good for his health. "You know, you've inconvenienced me," he spoke to them casually, taking another step towards them as they responded in kind. "Your stunt in the Ribbon Kingdom was quite irritating. Never has my prey escaped me once I found it. It has been quite an experiencing to re-track you down. In fact, I almost missed you, what with your companion in a new disguise. You…on the other hand…though you've tried, I can recognize you, even with that stupid hood on your head and that lame spell that was placed on you."

Gohan leaned towards Videl and whispered, "You're spell didn't work."

She merely gave him an incredulous look. "Is that all you care about right now?"

"I just wanted you to know."

"Oh gee, I hadn't figured that out. Look at the guy trying to kill you!"

The assassin took another step. "And now, I stand before you in shame, due to your escape. For that, reparations need to be made on your part. I am a merciful man so I will grant you a choice: you get to pick which leg I break so that you can never run again."

Gohan swallowed at that as he moved his front foot backwards. "Do you have to do that? Can't we talk this out?" he tried to reason.

Tai Pai Pai tilted his head up, his stoic face becoming more severe by the act. "That is a foolish question, boy. The moment you became my mark was the time you ceased having the opportunity to talk. You are a wanted man and I will capture you, end of story."

Well, there went reasoning. Gohan suppose that just left violence as their way out of this. Unfortunately, from their previous encounter, the young man had the feeling that he stood zero chance against this guy. He nervously swallowed again. One of his hands began to shake with fear. Oh what he wouldn't give to have a stunt double for the leg breaking part.

Yet, it seemed Videl had other ideas. Out of nowhere, she suddenly began screaming at the top of her lungs. It was a rather loud shrill that hurt Gohan's ears and he faintly wondered if he'd have ear damage from it. However, the next thing to come out of her mouth startled not only him, but Tao Pai Pai as well.

" _THIEF_ _!_ "

Gohan jerked his head to look at the dark-haired girl with wide eyes. The assassin guy's mouth dropped open, his arms hanging out his sides as he stared. "Robber! Mugger! Vandel!" Videl continued to scream wildly, even frantically. "Somebody, please help me!"

And just as sudden as she started, the girl lunged at Gohan, grabbing onto him tightly. Her legs went limp, putting her entire weight on the unsuspecting youth and he found himself dropping down onto his knees as his arms clumsily wrapped around Videl in an attempt to hold her up. She was wailing now, mingling her crying with shouts of, "Ple-e-ease help me! He's ro-o-o-bbing me-e-e-e!"

"Wh-what is she doing?" the assassin sputtered.

Gohan looked to the other man and shrugged his shoulders. "I have no clue."

"Well, get her to stop!"

"How?"

That was when there was a shout coming somewhere from behind Gohan. Turning his head, several guards were racing towards him, their swords drawn and ready to hack someone down. Videl seemed to know they were coming and immediately pointed a finger right at Tao Pai Pai. "It was him! He's the robber! Stop him, please!"

For a moment, the assassin looked like a goldfish, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to find words. He finally was able to sputter out, "That's preposterous. I never—"

But that was the last he was able to say as the guards jumped him. Though they held swords in their hands, the first two rammed their shoulders into the man, tackling him to the ground. Three more guards ran up and jumped on top of them, forming a larger dog pile.

Gohan was completely amazed at the sight of the pile, but that was short lived as he felt Videl suddenly pull herself up his body and hissed into his ear, "C'mon, Gohan. Let's get out of here while Tao is occupied with the guards."

Jolting from that command, Gohan immediately stood up, his arms tightening around Videl's waist as she tightened hers around his neck. On his feet, he began running down the trail, away from the other men and the checkpoint. "Get off of me, you buffoons!" he heard Tao Pai Pai scream behind him. "You're letting them get away!"

"Gohan, put me down," Videl ordered as she swayed around in his arms, her legs dangling off the ground. "You can't run like this holding me this way."

Well, she was right about that. However, he wasn't about to drop her on the ground. Instead, he moved one of his hands lower, grasping onto the seat of her pants. Shifting the girl to one side, he then lifted her up and forced her to lie on his shoulder. With an arm resting on Videl's lower back and the other on the back of her legs, he picked up his pace.

"What the hell are you thinking?!" he heard her shout behind his head. "Put me down this instant! I'm not some bag of beans you can carry how ever you want!"

Perhaps, but in this instance, she most certainly was.

* * *

It wasn't long until the dark-haired couple reached a village. Gohan was surprised there was even one in this region, without a clear source of water nearby, but he wasn't about to question its existence.

"You know, you can put me down now."

Turning his head, he saw Videl's rump next to his head. He had been carrying the girl over his shoulder ever since their escape from Tao Pai Pai and hadn't thought about setting her down. Probably because she had stopped kicking her legs and pounding his back. Funny how he forgot all about her when she wasn't shouting.

"Uhh, sure," he replied as he leaned forward, helping her off his shoulder. Videl slid off and landed on her feet, giving him a cross look when he leaned back up. She just stared at him like that for several moments before she opened her mouth again.

"I'm going to overlook this just this once. Do that again and I will stab you in the back."

"I thought you were trying to keep me alive?"

"Don't…push…me…"

Gohan raised both of his hands up and placed them behind his head and shrugged his shoulders. He then stepped around the woman and began walking towards the village. "At least we left that assassin guy behind us." He was keenly aware that Videl wasn't following him until he heard her suck in a deep breath of air and then stomped after him. "So, how much further east do we have to go?"

"That can wait," Videl answered as she caught up to him, grabbing onto his shirt and tugging on it, indicating he should stop.

Gohan didn't. "And why can it wait?" he asked as he continued strolling without a care in the world.

"In case you weren't listening, Tao Pai Pai said he recognized you because of your clothes. We need to put you in something else for the rest of our journey to at least throw him off our scent."

"I don't really see how new clothes are going to help with that. I mean, that guy is some kind of professional bounty hunter, right? It won't matter if I dress up like some lord or farmer; he'll pick me out like he did at the checkpoint."

Then a thought occurred to him. "Hey, why don't you use that spell of yours, the one that makes people not look at me? Just make it stronger than the last one and that should work."

That was when Videl hit him on the back of his head, causing him to wince. "Uh, hello? He saw right through the damn spell. Easily, I might add. No way does a stronger one work on someone like him. Like I said, we just need to make a better disguise for you. End of story."

Almost as if there was some divine intervention, they walked in front of a general store. With Videl pulling him to a stop, the two looked at the store, contemplating for one reason or another. "You're sure about this?" Gohan asked, not moving his attention from the store front.

"Positive," Videl answered. "Now get in there. The sooner we find you something, the sooner we leave."

As one, the two walked into the store, heading for the clothes. Gohan, for one, wasn't picky about what they got, as long as it satisfied Videl, since she was pressing the matter. The dark-haired woman took the lead, looking around and shifting her gaze every which way. A part of Gohan wondered if she enjoyed this whole ordeal, considering how into the search she was getting.

It was then that Videl stopped in her tracks, looking towards a section of the store, her eyes lighting up with mirth. "I think we have your disguise," she said to the dark-haired youth.

Upon looking in the direction Videl was, Gohan suddenly became very picky.

* * *

To Zerolink100: You don't think Gohan and Videl made sure to shrink him to normal? Sharpner could be looking for that other tree right now to get himself back lol. Though he made have trouble doing that if he runs into that river again.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	16. Gohan's New Dress

"I strongly object to this," Gohan muttered as he shuffled towards the store exit.

Videl followed him, giving the young man a smug look. "Don't be such a baby. I didn't whine this much when I had to get new clothes, so neither should you."

"But you weren't wearing a dress!"

Gohan's face was bright red from embarrassment. The moment his "comrade" had spotted this thing, she had been adamant that he put it on. Of course, he had resisted—what guy wouldn't? But somehow, here he was, a brown wool skirt itching his legs from thigh to ankle. He had been scratching nonstop since it had been shoved onto him.

"And I told you why I shouldn't wear one," the dark-haired woman replied, her smirk permanently etched onto her face.

"Oh, but it's fine for me? That doesn't make any sense!"

"Of course it does," Videl said sternly, her amusement disappearing as she gave him a serious look. At least she tried to look stern, but the constant twitching at the corner of her mouth revealed she was getting a kick out of this. "You see, if someone came up to you, you'd be able to fight them off, whereas I wouldn't be, since I'm a delicate female and all. So with us switching places, naturally the bad guys are going to go for you, right where we want them to go so that way I don't get hurt."

Gohan glared at her. "But then they're going to try to hurt me, especially when they find out that I don't have boobs!"

"And like I said, because you're a guy you can fight them off. Have you not been listening to me?"

"No, because nothing you've said is reasonable."

"Well, too bad. You're wearing that get up until we're safely in Monkey territory. Consider this punishment for not going straight there when you had the chance."

Gohan continued to scowl as he crossed his hands over his chest, his white blouse rubbing up against his skin. There were currently two oddly-shaped mounds on his chest, several socks stuffed into each other and attached to his chest with some of Videl's binding bandages. The effect was that they looked mishapened, at least that's how he saw considering he had the best view of them when he looked down. Videl blew off any criticism, saying they were just fine. She had gone all out to make him a convincing woman and Gohan felt she had failed spectacularly, considering she kept ignoring the indisputable fact that he was indeed not a woman. In this he was absolutely right, yet she wouldn't listen to reason. It was as if she was always right and he was wrong and he should've realized that a long time ago.

"Now, keep your headdress on tight and off we go," Videl declared as she put a firm hand on his back and shoved him through the door. The headdress she spoke of was nothing more than a bandana that was tied over his head to keep his hair down. It wasn't like he could magically grow his hair out so that it could be braided, or whatever it was little girls did. At least he was able to keep his boots, so that he didn't have to wear what passed as lady's shoes. The dress fortunately was long enough to hide his feet.

Stumbling out into the street, Gohan caught his balance and turned his head to once more glare at Videl. Unfortunately, before he could do that, a group of soldiers came passing by, immediately grabbing his attention. At least he wasn't the only person drawn to the armored men as the rest of the villagers stopped what they were doing and watched in rapt fascination.

That was when Videl saddled up next to the youth. "You sure you want to wear your old clothes? Looks like those guards are out looking for you."

Gohan turned his head, looking down on the woman, and said, "Yes."

"But you'd surely be spotted by those guys. You could wind up back in a jail cell."

"I know. I don't care."

Finally, Videl's good mood evaporated. "Just get moving, okay? We don't have a lot of daylight left and we still have a lot of ground to cover."

The souring attitude made Gohan smirk in satisfaction. "You know, since you're so determined to make me the woman, perhaps I should take advantage of the situation."

Videl raised an eyebrow at that. "And what does that mean?"

"It means that, since you're the guy now, you have to do all the things I usually have to do. Find firewood, light a fire, fight off bad guys, do the side-quests some random villager is going to ask us to do, and since we are on an adventure, we'll have to do it. Oh, I mean, _you_ will have to do it."

Videl scowled menacingly at him. "Uhh, no, that is still your job."

"But I'm pretending to be a woman and in order to fit the part, as you've been stressing in the store, I can't do the normal guy stuff. You, on the other hand, can."

Anger was breaking through her glare. "I swear to Kami above, if you even think of stopping us just so I have to do some stupid side-quest, I will rip your balls off."

Gohan merely look at her in triumph. "You sure you want me to stay dressed as this?"

"Yes…I am."

"Then consider this punishment for forcing another person into a role they did not want."

"Quit being annoying and start moving."

"But I can't. I'm playing the role of a vindictive woman who is mad at her consort; I simply can't break character. And since I'm only familiar with the way one girl acts, I can only follow her example."

Videl's eyes widened at the jab. "Are you saying that…" she trailed off before heatedly shouting, "I am not vindictive!"

Gohan then gestured to his outfit. "Then what do you call this?"

"A disguise, you twit!"

That was when a new voice interrupted their conversation. "Is there a problem here?"

Turning their heads, the dark-haired couple saw a guard standing a couple feet away, looking at them very seriously. Immediately, Gohan turned his head back to Videl and waited for her to come up with an excuse. After all, she was wearing the pants between them.

Videl shot a glare at him for a second before turning her attention to the guard. "Oh, it's nothing. My…uhh…wife, yes, my wife and I were having an argument. You see, she wanted to buy…some expensive trinket in the store, but since we don't have the money for it, I told her no. She's been giving me grief ever since."

The guard sounded dubious at the excuse. "It didn't sound like that's what you were arguing about."

"That's because he's a cheapskate," Gohan muttered. The guard snapped his head to him and stared at him oddly. The dark-haired youth wondered why he was getting the look until he realized that he had used his normal, masculine voice there. So much for staying in character.

"Dear, you know I like nothing more than spending money on you," Videl said through clenched teeth.

It seemed like she was going to add something, but Gohan interrupted in a high-pitched voice, "I'm going home, _Dear_. Don't blow all our money on booze when you go to the bar tonight." With that, he stalked off, grabbing his skirt and picking it up so he could walk better. A glance back told him that the guard was now glaring at a nervous Videl, the armored man appearing to buy Gohan's mean comeback. It'd take his comrade a little bit to shake the guard off, but it was so worth his companion's aggravation.

* * *

They left the village soon after. Videl was clearly not pleased with him, but Gohan didn't really care. If he was stuck in this get-up for awhile, then he was going to make Videl feel every last bit of his irritation.

Hmm, now that he thought about that, that kinda sounded like how Videl took her anger out on him. Perhaps he really had taken some good notes on her behavior.

However, things didn't go as smoothly as they wished, the hope that they could walk the countryside unhindered. There were a surprising amount of patrols roaming the area. Over the past two days that had run into no less than six different patrols; it was as if they were on high alert, searching for something or someone. For some reason, Gohan fell under the impression that it was him.

Then again, that could've just been Videl's paranoia rubbing off on him. She had been unusually quiet, except when they had to speak to the patrols. It may have been that she wasn't in the mood to start up another argument between them, to which Gohan had to wonder if that was all they did nowadays. It was a bit depressing to think that the only person he could really trust at the moment brought out the worst in him. Before this was all over, Gohan felt they needed to do some patching up. Maybe when they reached the next border.

However, a problem came up when a much larger group of soldiers ran into them. "Halt!" one of them called out, causing the two dark-haired youths to do just that. "What business have you two in this area?"

Videl sighed before take a step closer to the head soldier. "We are two travelers heading north on a pilgrimage. As you can see, it is only me and my wife."

The armored man looked at Gohan and raised an eyebrow. "Quite a tall…wife you have there."

"What can I say, I love her more than life itself," she said dully.

"Congratulations then. However, you cannot head north."

Videl jerked her head slightly, taken back by that response. "Why not?"

"It has come to our attention that a wanted felon has entered the kingdom. All borders are closed off and anyone seen attempting to cross without permission is to be arrested on sight and, if necessary, killed."

Videl and Gohan's eyes widened. "I…see…" the dark-haired woman replied. "Umm, how do we go about getting permission?"

"Why, from the queen of course."

"But that's three days from here!" Videl protested. "Surely you can't expect us to take such a detour! I mean, we have places to be and going all the way to the capital would just eat up a large part of our time."

The guard shrugged his shoulders. "Then surely the queen will sympathize with you and give you the necessary documentation to allow you to cross unimpeded. Until then, we will not let you go any further."

"Is something wrong, Honey?" Gohan asked in his high falsetto.

Videl turned her head and he could clearly see how troubled she was by this news. "Don't worry, Honey," she replied back in an obviously fake cheeriness. "It's nothing for you to worry about."

And of course, Gohan began to worry. Funny how he always seemed to do the opposite of what Videl asked him to do. His comrade turned back to the armored man and asked, "Are you sure there's no other way we can cross?"

"Well, if we catch the fugitive between now and when you reach the border, then you should be free to cross. But this is a big kingdom as you should know. The likelihood of us finding this man soon isn't in your favor."

Videl reluctantly nodded her head. "Okay then. Would you mind telling us what this fugitive looks like? So that way we can alert you to his presence?"

The soldier's head perked up at that. "That's a great idea! Alright, listen closely: our fugitive is a young man of ye height." At this, he held a hand up high over Videl's head, much to her annoyance and Gohan amusement. Though it seemed as if the soldier was indicating someone of the dark-haired youth's height, so that limited his enjoyment somewhat. "He has spiky black hair and is lanky in stature. He's been seen traveling with another man, though shorter. In fact, I would gander that he was as tall as you are."

Gohan stiffened at that. That confirmed it, they were the wanted felons. And the guard was currently describing them right in front of a very large troop of soldiers. The young man got the feeling that perhaps they shouldn't be dawdling here much longer.

"Well, we'll be on the look out for them," Videl chirped with enthusiasm. "C'mon, Honey, let's get out of these soldiers' way."

Gohan meekly nodded his head as he stood aside with Videl. The troop marched passed them, each man looking straight ahead. It wasn't until the last man passed that the two youths began walking again, trying to put some distance between them.

The first thing Gohan noticed was that Videl was clearly not happy about this new development. "That bastard," she seethed. "That murdering bastard must've told those guards at the checkpoint about us. It's the only reason why there are so many damn patrol running around."

The dark-haired young man nodded his head. "And they closed off the border. So now what do we do?"

"We have to chance it," Videl declared as if that was the only option they had. "If we time ourselves right, we can slip on through and get across before anyone notices. And even if they did, the moment we set foot on Monkey lands, they can't touch us."

"Do you know of a path that'll give us that opportunity though?"

"Of course, the same one we were going to use. The terrain is perfect for us to hide in as we make our way through."

"But that also means the patrols can hide from us too," Gohan pointed out. "They could be sitting out at perfect vantage points and spot us without us knowing it. Then we'd be dragged to the capital where I doubt we'd have a nice welcome."

"So what, you want to go get an actual pass?" Videl replied skeptically. "Uhh, there's no way in hell you're going to get one. So that's not even an option for us."

Gohan shrugged his shoulders. "It's not like we have too many options. We're trapped in this kingdom right now and we're taking a huge risk trying to sneak over the border. And considering who I have after me, I'm willing to bet those patrolmen won't hesitate to simply kill us out there. Maybe this queen will help us. Do you know of her?"

Videl paused. Then she said slowly, "I still think we should at least try to cross. The longer you stay here, the longer you're in danger and neither one of us will be able to rest easy until you're safe."

That didn't really answer his question. For some reason, Videl seemed reluctant to head to the capital city. Sure, he understood that he wasn't going to be safe there, but let's face it, he wasn't safe where he stood right now. And he said as much. "There's nowhere I'll be safe as long as we're on Demon lands, but we knew that coming here. Now that we have this situation, we need to at least consider every option we have and this pass is one of them. Heck, I could hide out somewhere outside the city if I have to while you go in and get the passes. Wouldn't that work?"

The dark-haired girl lowered her head, her hair falling in front of her eyes. She seemed to be debating something in her head, but Gohan wasn't sure what that was. After awhile, her shoulders seemed to sag. "Are you sure about this?" she finally asked wearily.

"Yeah, whatever it takes."

"Alright then, we'll go to the capital." The way she said that made Gohan turn his head to look at her worriedly. She had sounded resigned and devoid of energy, a complete contrast as to how she usually was. He didn't like it and it made him wonder why she was acting this way. It was alarming to him.

Their conversation seemed to be at an end though, as Videl turned and began heading east. Gohan began following her, keeping a sharp eye on her. He could tell from her body language that she was listless. Was there a reason why she didn't want to go to the capital? Was it something she had done there at one point and caused her to flee? His head perked up at that line of thinking. Was she wanted there for something, just like him?

A sinking feeling appeared in his stomach. He got a strong feeling he wasn't going to like this.

* * *

To Zerolink100: You're assuming Videl cares if Sharpner's back to his normal size or not. As long as he isn't preening with pride, she's fine with whatever size. Sharpner, on the other hand, would probably complain no matter what it was unless it was dragging on the ground.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	17. Under New Management

The capital city of the Demon lands was a sprawling urban center of clay buildings, sprouting right out of the desert-like landscape. Aside from that, it was your basic large city, with the city walls and buildings—it just lacked a proper moat that usually encircled capital cites.

Then of course, there was the pink castle.

While the castle itself towered over the rest of the city, the fact it was painted pink made it a bit of an eyesore if Gohan was being honest. It wasn't a subtle pink either—a pale pink, while bad wasn't that awful. This was a bright, bright pink. Whoever was in control of it either liked the color, or was keeping it that way due to centuries of tradition. That thought made the sight of it even worse for some reason. Considering that from one of the towers, a large flag blowing in the hot desert breeze proudly proclaimed, UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT, the young man was really hoping it wasn't for tradition.

Glancing to Videl, Gohan noted the woman looked pale at the sight. The color in her face had drained, her mouth dropped open, and her eyes reflecting her horror. "The castle," she said softly in disbelief. "What did they…why did…the castle…"

Leaning towards her, the dark-haired youth waved a hand in front of the woman's face, trying to raise her from her daze. "Videl? Hello? You're starting to talk nonsense."

That…didn't have the desired effect. Videl still stared in abject horror, lost in her thoughts. Well, that was inconvenient. "Yoohoo, earth to Videl. Are you okay?" When that didn't work, Gohan decided to bring out the big guns. "Oh hey, Sharpner. Why are you standing behind Videl?"

The dark-haired woman's reaction was instantaneous. Immediately, she spun around, throwing a fist at the alleged Sharpner sighting, only to hit empty air. This sent the girl spinning, to which Gohan leaned away from, until she lost her balance and dropped to the ground, landing on her backside. Blinking her eyes, Videl looked this way and that before realizing what had just happened. A scowl then appeared on her face as she directed it right at Gohan. "Oh, ha, ha, what the hell was that about?" she growled at him, pushing herself back up as she dusted herself off.

"Well, I had to get your attention somehow," the youth replied, resisting the urge to show his amusement. He was definitely going to remember this reaction. "So, now that we're here, we need to meet this Queen lady."

Even more to his amusement, Gohan noticed Videl pointedly ignoring the sight of the pink case, facing him head on as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I think I have an idea, but it's going to require me going into the city and leaving you out here."

That caused the dark-haired youth to frown. "Why do I have to stay here?"

She gave him a look that clearly said the reason should be obvious. "We've been over this before, Gohan, and I don't feel like repeating myself—again. Now be careful not to drag the hem of your dress and let's find you a place to hide. It would take me some time to go do what we need to do."

Gohan soured at that. He was just about fed up with this disguise stuff—and the dress was uncomfortable to boot. How did women wear this stuff everyday anyways? No wonder Videl preferred dressing up as a guy.

However, before he could turn away and pointedly ignore the growing smirk on Videl's face, a loud voice shouted at them. "Make way! Make way! The Princess of the Mountain Valley approaches!"

As it so happened, Gohan and Videl were standing on the road, so the moment they heard the call, they turned to face it, seeing several armored men walking out in front of a coach, a few more men walking behind it. Considering how hot it was, you could see a shiny sheen to the guards faces from the sweat that slid down their skin.

However, while Gohan just looked at the scene with mild interest, Videl's face had lit up. "Oh thank Kami, what luck!" she declared before she began strolling towards the advancing guard, much to Gohan's surprise. "Hey!" the young woman called out, waving a hand over her head. "Can you guys stop? I need to talk to the princess!"

Almost immediately, Videl came to a stop as several spears were pointed right at her throat, causing her to stop in her tracks. The carriage slowed to a stop due to this as the guards from behind it moved to joined their fellow guards. "Come no closer!" the same guard roared, several glares baring down on the dark-haired girl. "Unless you want to keep your head where it is, I suggest you get out of the way, peasant."

The young woman backed off a step, but from the way she held her shoulders, Gohan could practically picture the scowl that was on her face. What he didn't expect was what she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Hey, Fake Princess! You're not fooling anyone, ya know!"

Instantly, the door to the coach flew open and a mass of green frills and pink ribbons poured out. "Who said that?!" a blonde-haired woman shrieked, enraged blue eyes looking everywhere. "Whoever it was, I want their tongue ripped out of their mouths and their head mounted on my—"

Wherever the place was the woman wanted to mount Videl's head, it died on her tongue as she caught sight of the dark-haired girl, her eyes bugging out of her head. For a moment, her mouth opened and closed like a goldfish before her face lit up. "Oh hey, Vi! You're back!"

"Hey, Erasa," Videl greeted the blonde, much to Gohan and the armored guardsmen's surprise. Even from where he stood, he could see the other men looking to each other in bafflement. "We need to talk, preferable in a place without prying ears."

"Then we can speak in my carriage! Come, we shall retire to the castle and then later have ourselves a lovely execution!" the princess declared giddily.

 _Ex…execution?_ Gohan gulped at that. Unconsciously, he shrank in on himself, hoping no one got a good look at him. Already, he could imagine having a bunch of swords being shoved into his ribs, or even a guillotine blade slicing off his head. Neither of those were good images to have.

"That sounds great." Turning her head, Videl called out, "Hey, Honey! Come here! We're getting a ride!"

Automatically, the young man shook his head rapidly. "Uhh, ahhh, no thank you, Honey. I couldn't possibly—"

In a blur, Videl was right in his face, grabbing his ear and yanking him down. "Get in the bloody carriage before you make an idiot out of yourself," she hissed at him dangerously.

"But you heard what she said," Gohan shot back harshly. "She's having an execution and I rather not have any part of it!"

"Quit being a baby; now is not the time for you to go running off. If you don't get in the coach, Erasa's gonna order her men to track you down, which shouldn't be all that hard for them since you're wearing a dress. Now, unless you want there to be two executions, come along."

Well, when she put it that way. "Fine, but this better be worth it."

Slowly, Gohan trudged reluctantly to the carriage, Videl following behind him to prevent the youth from making a mad dash away. Honestly, he was thinking about it, but his so-called friend was right, he wouldn't get too far in his…ugh, dress and in this heat. Who's idea had it been to go to this Kami-forsaken land anyway?

The moment they reached the blonde, Gohan could see the princess giving him a once over. Though she didn't say anything to the youth as he began to board the carriage, he definitely caught what the girl said lowly to Videl. "Really, Vi? Where did you find such a mannish woman? I thought you were looking for you-know-who."

Seriously? Did everyone think he was a woman? How much more insulting was this going to get?

"I'll tell you in a little bit," Videl whispered back and that was all that was said on the matter. Inside the carriage, Gohan sat down, eyeing the little window and wondering if he could pull the curtain shut without it being considered strange. Videl slid in then, taking the seat next to him while the princess entered last, seating herself on the other side of the carriage.

With the door closing, the blonde immediately began talking. "Okay, who's the girl? When you told me you were leaving, you never mentioned another woman. Did you change which team you're swinging for, Vi?"

Videl scowled. She then looked at Gohan and said, "Not one word out of you." Returning to Erasa, she then answered, "I did exactly as I told you I would."

"So why the chick?"

The dark-haired youths looked at each other before they each reached for the curtains, closing them over the windows to the carriage. Though the young man wasn't too sure about this, Videl seemed like she was okay with letting this woman know about him and she was a good judge of character, he thought. So, once there was no way anyone could see them, Gohan gratefully reached for his headdress and pulled it off, feeling air on his sweat-covered scalp.

At that action, Erasa's eyes widened. "Gohan? You actually found him?" Her eyes ran over the youth from head to foot before she added, "And in _that_ dress? Vi, that color is terrible on him. Why did you let him go out wearing it? I mean, brown is such an ugly color and his coloring just clashes terribly with—"

"We weren't worrying about fashion when we got it," the dark-haired woman interrupted, sounding annoyed at the criticism.

That didn't stop Gohan from muttering, "You mean you weren't. I didn't have a choice."

The blonde girl looked at him with compassion in her eyes. It was sorta startling to see someone look that way at him considering most people just wanted to kill him. "You poor thing. Don't you worry, when we get back to the castle, we'll get you something more flattering."

The young man's face fell. He was going to have to wear _another_ dress? Dear Kami, he must've done something really bad in a past life in order to be tormented this way.

"This isn't important," Videl interjected, clearly exasperated with the direction the conversation had gone.

"Says you, Miss Cross-dresser," the blonde retorted. However, she got the message and decided to drop the subject for the time being. However, that didn't make their conversation any less tense as she said, "Of all the places you could've gone, why did you bring Gohan here? Are you nuts?"

"We didn't really have that much of a choice," the dark-haired woman grumbled as she crossed her arms over her chest, one of her legs moving to rest on top of the other. "I found him in the Ribbon Kingdom, but before we could get into Monkey territory, we had to turn back. The entire border was crawling with bounty hunters, so we had to take the long way around. That's why we're here."

"Still, Demon lands are even worse than Ribbon," Erasa pointed out. "And you even came to Dabara of all places. If anyone finds out, there's going to be _two_ executions before the week is out!"

"Well, the northern border is closed and the only way to cross it now is to have permission from the queen," Videl answered. "And to do that, we had to come here."

"But isn't—"

"You think I'd forget?" For some reason, Videl and Erasa were looking at each other with meaningful looks, ones that Gohan had no clue as to their meaning. He did get the feeling it was important though, and Videl didn't want it to get out. Why else would she interrupt the princess when she was talking?

"Well, if you're such a know-it-all, then you'd know the Ribbon people are at the castle," Erasa said smugly.

That caused Videl to widen her eyes. "They're here? Already?"

"You've been gone for a year, Vi. Things didn't stop when you left; unfortunately, there's been…rumors running around."

The dark-haired woman's eyes narrowed. "What kinds?"

"The kind that isn't good for you. You're going to have to straighten them out, you know."

Videl seemed to sag then, much to Gohan's surprise. This entire conversation was flying over his head, but he got the feeling that none of it was good for either him, or the dark-haired woman at his side. She didn't seem happy about it, so that's what he was basing his assumption on. Eventually, Videl replied, "I had the feeling I would have to, so this was only inevitable. Well, might as well start when we get back."

For what it was worth, Erasa looked apologetic about the whole thing. "I did my best, Vi. I just want you to know that."

That caused the woman to narrow her eyes at her blonde counterpart. "Did that have to include painting the entire castle pink?"

Erasa tilted her head up, raising her nose up haughtily. "A little color never hurt anyone."

"Seriously, Erasa? Who could possibly take the Demon Kingdom seriously with a pink castle? A _hot pink_ castle? And what about that banner? 'Under New Management?' Who's big idea was it to hang _that_ up?"

"Hey, if you've got a problem with how I run things, then take it up with the suggestion box because I am _so_ over this."

A sudden knock on the door of the carriage interrupted the three then, immediately causing Videl to jerk her head towards the door and then to Gohan fearfully, the young man scrambling to shove his headdress back on. "Just a minute!" Erasa called out in a high-pitched voice, looking uneasy at the scene before her. Though it wasn't nearly as good when it was put on this morning, Gohan got the covering on, albeit sloppily. Videl even made adjustments to it to make it more presentable, even as the carriage door opened.

"Pardon the intrusion, your Highness," a guard apologized as he stood outside the carriage. "But the prisoner is still complaining."

Erasa looked at the guard in irritation. "So? I already told you you could beat him up all you want. Where's the problem with that?"

"Well, you see…" the man trailed off uneasily. "The prisoner…he just…he keeps complaining _more_ whenever we beat him. We even tried to knock him unconscious several times, but he just keeps saying that we're not supposed to be beating the hero up."

Gohan froze up. It couldn't be. Slowly, his eyes rolled to a side, his head moving a moment later to see Videl giving him the same look. Oh good, at least they were on the same page.

Turning their collective attention to the princess, Videl questioned, "You caught Sharpner, didn't you?"

As if to confirm that, a voice sounded off in the background. "Which part of the word hero do you people not understand? He or ro?"

Erasa merely nodded as she looked quite pleased with herself. "I ran into that moron while I was out for my morning ride. He started calling me a fake princess—" she paused to give a heated look at the dark-haired couple before adding in a deathly low tone"—which I am not. So, I decided to do the world a favor and have his head removed from his shoulders."

Once more, Gohan and Videl glanced at each other before the dark-haired woman replied, "Go ahead. You have our blessings."

Gohan wanted to add to that sentiment, but due to the fact they had…someone else in their midst, he kept quiet. No way did he want to speak in that fake falsetto in front of two people that would most assuredly laugh at him—well, maybe not Videl. He'd used it enough to annoy the heck out of her whenever they were in company.

Erasa beamed. "I knew you would understand." Then she glanced over at Gohan warily. It was as if she expected him to protest, though that would be a long time coming.

Of course, the guard had to reinsert himself into the matter. "Umm, ma'am? We are running out of ways to keep him cooperative. Short of tying him up and using the carriage to drag him, we have nothing left we can do."

"Does dragging sound good to you two?" Erasa asked the dark-haired couple, looking as if she really wanted their opinion. To that, Gohan merely nodded while Videl gave a thumbs up in approval. Though she looked surprised by Gohan's agreement, she ran with it. "Very well, restrain the prisoner and let him taste dirt for the remainder of our journey."

"As you please, your Highness," the guard replied before shutting the door. The three sat in silence as they listened to the outside noises. They could clearly hear the guard call out for rope. There was some more talking before they could hear Sharpner begin shouting loudly.

"Hey! What are you doing? No! Stop! You can't do this to the hero of the story! It's written law for Kami's sake!"

"He still calls himself that?" Erasa muttered to herself before addressing Gohan, "let me guess, he keeps calling you Enemy or Sidekick, or whatever your name was."

"Actually, it depended on the situation," Gohan said with a shrug. "But yeah, he still calls me that, though I have no idea why."

The blonde gave him an odd look. "He's always called you that."

"Well yeah, ever since he wanted to collect me for that bounty."

"But he did that be…" she then trailed off as her eyes were diverted elsewhere. Frowning, Gohan followed the look and noticed Videl was giving Erasa a meaningful look. Feeling suspicious, he was willing to bet she had done something to dissuade whatever the blonde was about to say. That was adding to his frustration concerning all that intrigue the two were throwing at each other.

And he was had enough of that. "Okay, what's going on?" he demanded, his tone catching the two women off guard, though Videl was quick to recover her previously calm expression. "You two have been talking about something and I want to know what."

Erasa looked to Videl, obviously wanting some clue as to how to answer; the dark-haired woman merely sighed in response. "Don't worry, Gohan, you'll find out everything when we reach the castle."

His frown deepened. "I don't want to wait to get to the castle; I want to know now."

"A carriage is hardly the place to talk about this sort of stuff."

The vagueness was really starting to get to him. "I'm really starting not to care about that."

"You've waited this long to find out about this, Gohan; surely you can wait another hour."

Gohan snorted at that. "If you had it your way, I wouldn't ever find out."

Videl shrugged. "A girl's gotta have a few secrets."

"Umm, you do realize you're the only one here pretending to be a guy?"

"He's got a point, Vi," Erasa agreed.

That caused the dark-haired woman to glare. "You stay out of this."

"I SWEAR TO KAMI, YOU'LL BE HEARING FROM MY MOMMY ABOUT THIS!"

The three paused as they comprehended that statement. Just when you thought Sharpner couldn't sink any lower, he went out of his way to prove that yes, yes he could. "If I recall right, this road is really bumpy up ahead," Videl spoke casually.

Erasa nodded. "You remember right."

"Then I think Sharpner's in for a very bad time."

* * *

To Zerolink100: At this point, I'm pretty sure there's more questions lol

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	18. The Guide

Hey, everyone. This story has just reached the 100 review mark. I'd like to thank everyone that's read and reviewed this story. I really appreciate the feedback. This next chapter is longer than previous ones, so I hope you enjoy.

* * *

Castles were boring.

Gohan was finding this out the hard way; then again, he didn't really have much of a choice. Once the carriage carrying him, Videl, and Princess Erasa arrived at the castle, he had been hustled to this room—his "quarters" as he had been told—and that was the last he had seen of anyone. Videl and Erasa had just vanished on him, leaving only behind a warning that he should stay in there and not come out.

Considering he was on Demon lands, the dark-haired youth took their command to heart and stayed in the room. Unfortunately, there was only so much that he could do in one room. So far he had ditched the dress he'd been forced to wear after he had found some plain-looking clothes in a dresser. Right about then he realized he must've been in a servant's room since a Lord or Lady would have finer clothes to pick from. He felt slighted at first, but then recalled his need to lie low, so he didn't begrudge it. Besides, now he could dress like a man again and he'd willingly wear a loincloth at this point in order to not wear a dress.

White shirt and brown pants on, Gohan lounged on the single bed, arms crossed behind his head and eyes staring up at the ceiling. Faintly, he wondered what the girls were up to. Obviously it was something hush-hush, so they weren't going to tell him anything. Did any of it have to do with the fact that he and Videl needed those border passes? For some reason, he was beginning to doubt that.

So what could he do?

A yawn unexpected overwhelmed him, causing his mouth to gape wide open before he closed it. Huh, he hadn't realized he was feeling so sleepy. The longer he laid there, the more tired he felt until his eyelids began to feel heavy. Before he knew it, his eyes were closed and he was drifting off…

Drifting off…

A sharp rap at the door jolted Gohan out of his sleep, causing him to frantically look about the room until he realize just what he had heard. Another knock at the door informed him that someone was outside the room, wanting in. Cautiously, the young man slid off the bed and crept to the door. Upon hearing a third round of knocking, he purposefully deepened his voice and called out, "Who is it?"

There was a moment of silence before, "It's Videl. Let me in."

Due to the thickness of the door, Gohan found it very suspicious that the voice he heard didn't sound like Videl's. So, in order to make sure this was who they claimed to be, he retorted, "What's the password?"

"Password? What password?"

"Just answer it."

A brief pause. "I swear, if you don't open this door, I will rip out your trachea and shove it down your bleeding throat."

Well, that definitely sounded like something Videl would say.

Opening the door, Gohan stayed out of sight until he saw the dark-haired woman enter, though he was taken back by what he saw. Due to them being on the road, he had only seen Videl in men's clothing; now she was definitely in a dress and there was no question that she was in fact a woman.

A light blue gown covered her body, dragging on the floor as she moved into the room. Oddly enough, her short hair had been styled to make her look more feminine, which was another surprise for the young man. Closing the door behind her, Gohan pressed his back against the door. If this was not Videl, then he wanted to make sure she wouldn't be getting out so easily.

Turning around, the dark-haired woman immediately zeroed in on what he wore. "Why did you take off the dress?" she demanded.

Okay, this was definitely Videl. "Because this is more comfy," he answered her truthfully.

"But people can see your face," she pointed out irritated. "And this is not the place to be making careless mistakes, so you better take off those clothes and get the damn dress back on. I mean it."

"What if I wore a hat?" Gohan suggested. "Maybe dirty up my face? That way people wouldn't think twice about me."

Videl crossed her arms over her chest, the thin, dark blue jacket she wore shifting about on her arms and shoulders. Due to the gown and the opening of the jacket, he could see her bosom and wow, she had a rather nice set if he didn't say so himself. He was forced to look away when the dark-haired woman said, "One, we're in a castle. No way does a servant wear a hat in these halls unless they're a courier for a visiting Lord. Two, where could you possibly get dirt on you in this place? Even if you could, again, all servants must be presentable."

Okay, he was running out of ideas on this one and no way was he putting on that scratchy dress back on. He was starting to like this outfit of his, thank you very much. "Did you get the passes we need?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

Videl glared at him before giving him a sharp nod. "I did, but we're not going anywhere until you're suitably attired. There's nowhere to run if you're spotted in the castle, and let's face it, you will be. You're not the sort of person to blend in."

"When do we leave?" Gohan pressed, ignoring that last part blatantly. "Because I'd rather not have to sit around in that itchy dress longer than I have to."

The dark-haired woman held her gaze for several moments, obviously not pleased by his resistance. Yet, she seemed to relent all too quickly…again. Something about that struck Gohan as odd, though that thought was pushed away as she said, "In the evening. I've arranged for someone to lead you out—"

"Whoa, hold on," the young man interrupted. "Lead me? You're not coming along?"

For a moment, Videl seemed hesitant to reply to that, but ultimately she did. "There are a few more things I must see to while we're here. Meanwhile, the longer you're here, the more in danger you are and I'd rather you be camping somewhere outside the city than hiding out in a room in the castle. So you're going on ahead until I'm able to leave."

"So you're coming along with me," he said, feeling relief well up in him. For some reason, it just felt wrong if Videl wasn't with him considering everything they had gone through. To complete this journey of theirs not together just seemed wrong.

Upon seeing her nod, a small smile appeared on his face. "Don't worry," the young woman spoke soothingly. "I've made all the arrangements. There's someone here sympathetic to our plight and he's agreed to take you to the rendezvous point. He knows the area quite well, not to mention the patrol routes. You'll be in capable hands."

"Sounds like a plan. When do we—"

Suddenly, the door behind Gohan pushed against him, causing his eyes to widen before he shoved it back. Oh crap, someone wanted in and this was definitely not the time for it. Looking at Videl, he could see she was just as frightened as he was. Faintly, he could hear someone exclaim, "Hey! Why won't the door open?"

Gohan's eyes frantically shot all over the room, looking for a reasonable hiding place and finding none. Either that or his mind just wasn't up for finding one; regardless, this wasn't the time for coming up blank.

His eyes then fell onto Videl. Though she wasn't dressed to be in such surroundings, if it was a servant wanting in, they would be highly suspicious of her presence. She needed to hide as much as he did. Considering her size and his…

The young man then shot forward, surprising Videl as he wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off the ground, carrying her towards the far wall and shoving her up against it. "Gohan! What are you-!" she cried out before he smashed his lips onto hers, causing her to muffle her next words. Her hands shot up over his shoulders, fingers grabbing onto his hair in an attempt to pull him off, but the dark-haired youth resisted. He continued to force the kiss until he felt Videl begin to relax against him, her lips responding to his as her fingers played absently with his hair. A moan reverberated up her throat.

Fortunately, the door opened then rather than two seconds before, what sounded like a man demanding, "What the hell is…oh." Gohan did his best to hide as much of Videl as he could, though he couldn't help where her arms were. That was the price he had to pay to have it look as if the woman was messing up his hair too. "I'll just…come back later," the servant said lamely before the door closed gently.

Yet, neither of them stopped this kiss, Gohan finding himself beginning to enjoy it as Videl seemed to throw her entire being into it. It was only until they began to feel the urge to breath that they pulled apart, the two panting heavily in the other's face. Neither of them said anything for the longest time, merely looking into the other's eyes as they caught their second wind.

"That was…" Gohan began before trailing off.

"Yeah…" Videl agreed.

"I think we need to…"

"…get going, yes."

Yet, neither one moved away from the embrace they were in. Inexplicably, Gohan felt a sense of déjà vu, like this was natural for him. As for Videl, she was practically unreadable to him. He was sure she enjoyed the kiss, but her face was guarded, more so than at any time he had known her. Yet, he was able to detect some resignation in her as she took a step back, placing her hands on his shoulders as she pushed away from him. Limply, Gohan let his arms drop to his sides, beginning to feel awkward with every silent second that passed by.

Eventually, it became very apparent that neither one of them was going to begin talking, so Gohan turned around and walked to the door, opening it slowly so he could peek through it first. Seeing nothing by an empty hallway, he opened the door wider and stuck his head out, looking down one end of the corridor before checking the other direction, finding no one both ways. "Looks like we're in the clear," the young man said.

He then felt Videl right behind him. "Let's go," she whispered softly, a hint of her usual determination creeping into her voice. Gohan found comfort in the tone, welcoming their usual dynamic. Stepping out into the hall, he waited for Videl to join him and begin leading them to the right.

After several steps, however, the dark-haired woman realized something. "We forgot your dress."

Instantly, Gohan grabbed her arm and began pulling her behind him. "It's too late to go back for it," he said forcefully, fully intent on dragging the woman behind him.

"We're only a couple doors away," she protested. "Surely we can—"

"We've come too far to turn back now."

"Oh for…" Suddenly, Videl stopped right in the middle of the corridor, refusing to take another step forward, which caused Gohan to begin leaning backwards in response. "Damn it, Gohan, this is ridiculous. Get back to the room and put on your dress again."

Faintly, Gohan wondered if he should try kissing the dark-haired woman again. Perhaps it'd make her forget about it again and they could get to the other side of the castle before she remembered about it again. It was worth a shot, but he figured that he might be pressing his luck out in the open like this. "Can't turn back; gotta keep going."

"You've said that already."

"Then it was worth repeating."

The sounds of voice behind them interrupted whatever response Videl had to that, causing not only her but Gohan to freeze up. "See, gotta keep going," the young man hissed before quickly walking again, this time his companion moving with him.

"You just don't want to go back to the room," the dark-haired woman shot back just as quietly. "You better hope that we don't run into anyone else because I doubt you kissing me again will work."

At that moment, a little imp whispered in Gohan's ear and he couldn't help but try his luck. "We could always give it another shot," he said with a shrug.

Considering that Videl didn't respond to that, Gohan felt he had finally won an argument with the girl. It was a really good feeling he had to admit and he faintly wondered if this was how she felt most of time since she usually won their debates. Perhaps he'd ask her when he wasn't in grave danger.

* * *

"Gohan, I'd like for you to meet your guide."

Gohan wasn't sure what to expect, but finding out the man that was going to be sneaking him out of a hostile city was a full head shorter than him was startling. And green, he was definitely green…and bald, can't forget that…and were those antenna sticking out of his forehead?

It was common knowledge that the citizens of the Demon Kingdom looked less human than the other kingdoms, but the young man really didn't expect this much difference. Then again, he didn't have a good reason for coming out here until now and he definitely could file this under cultural shock.

So under these circumstances, it was fully understandable why the only thing he was able to say was, "Hi."

Fortunately, his green guide didn't seem offended by the greeting. "Hello," he replied pleasantly. "My name is Dende and I have been entrusted with your safety."

"That sounds good." Gohan then looked to Videl questioningly. He had been under the impression that every Demon citizen was after his head, so why was this guy any different? The young woman didn't look the least bit perturb. She was definitely calmer than she had been when they were sneaking around the halls, ducking and diving out of sight if they even thought someone was close enough to spot them. According to her, they were in some side room at the outer wall of the castle. To the dark-haired youth, it looked more like a storage room than anything, what with the wooden boxes and large pots stacked around.

Seeing as Videl didn't look like she'd be speaking, the young man returned his attention to his green counterpart. "So, what's the plan?" he asked, more to continue this meeting than anything else.

"Nothing too troublesome," Dende replied. He then pointed to a corner of the room, where there was a large shelf filled with all sorts of boxes. "There is a passageway that leads to an underground tunnel. It will lead us to a place outside of the city and from there we shall head to the rendezvous point."

That…sounded surprisingly simple. There had to be some sort of catch, be it a strange ceremony, blood sacrifice, trials of honors—

Dende then walked over to the shelves, heading right for a rather large barrel off to the side, nestled in the room's corner. Despite his short size, he moved the barrel easily, reveal a hole in the floor, one that looked as if someone had broken the stone floor with a large hammer.

—or it was just simply a hidden passage. Huh.

"So I take it we're leaving now," the dark-haired youth surmised, seeing the other two people in the rood nod in response. "Okay," he then paused to look to Videl before saying, "when are you going to meet up with us?"

"Sometime after dusk, midnight at the latest," she answered him.

"See you then," he said before walking to the hole. The closer he got to it, the smaller it seemed to look to him. Could he even fit through that? Stopping in front of it, he turned his head around and pointed down at the hole as he said, "Umm, doesn't this hole seem a little small?"

Suddenly, Dende raised a hand up and pushed the dark-hiared youth. Thrown off balance, Gohan tried to regain his footing by taking a step with his foot, only to have the foot step right into the hole. Arms waving frantically, his side crashed into the wall next to him, his other foot dragging against the floor before it too went into the hole. That was when gravity took a hold of him and he fell into the gap, feeling its rough edges dig into his body as he brushed against it. The youth cried out as he fell, landing hard on a rock floor.

"Owww," he complained as he rolled onto his back, looking up at the opening above him. Dende and Videl were looking down at him, the former impassively and the latter with concern. "That huuuuurt."

"I guess it was not too small," Dende spoke blandly. Looking up to Videl, he then said to her, "Take care, Milady." Then, without a warning or further prompting, the little green man jumped into the hole, causing Gohan's eyes to widen a split-second before the man landed right on top of him.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Dende declared, pushing himself off the dark-haired youth and standing up on his brown moccasins. Absently, he brushed his hands against his red vest and white robe before looking at the fallen man. "Are you going to be lying there all day or are we going to be going?"

As cross as Gohan wanted to be, Dende's tone wasn't all that irritating. He said everything so blandly and matter-of-fact that you didn't get the impression he was being mean on purpose. Still, he could've not landed on top of him. That was just mean.

Scratching sounds above them caused the two to look up, the bottom of the large barrel inching over the hole until it covered it all, bathing them in darkness. "Uhh, I can't see," Gohan complained, unsure whether he should bother trying to stand up now.

"Hold on a second, this won't take long," he heard Dende say. There were some footsteps that were leading away from the young man, stopping only when some rustling sounds were made. A couple moments later, light appeared, the little green man holding a freshly lit lantern in his hand. "There, that's better," he said before he stood up from his crouched pose, turning around to regard Gohan. "Are you still lying there?" he asked surprised.

With a groan, Gohan pushed himself up onto his feet, dusting himself once he was on his feet. "Sorry, I'm just not used to wander in the dark," he apologized.

"Not many people are," Dende replied before he nodded his head towards a doorway behind him. "Stay close behind me—you wouldn't want to get lost down here."

"It's a maze down here?" Gohan was genuinely surprised by that.

"No, there is only one path," the green man informed him. "But the ground is uneven and without light, you can easily twist an ankle. Just between you and me, I doubt I can carry you the rest of the way if that were to happen."

"Fair enough."

Without further ado, the two men passed through the threshold, walking the passageway carefully. Eying the floor and walls, Gohan couldn't help but notice how natural it all looked. There wasn't any indication that someone had carved the corridor and that all of this was naturally formed. "How did this get here?" he marveled out loud as he soaked everything in.

Dende answered his question. "Legend has it one of the old Demon Kings had requested a secret passageway out of the city be made should the city be attacked. There were many plans made and it was decided the storeroom we just left would be the entrance. However, once they broke the floor, they found this tunnel and explored it. After that, the King had everyone with knowledge of the tunnel silenced to ensure its secrecy."

"Silenced how?"

"They were all killed. It was said their heads decorated the city gate for a generation."

Gohan blinked owlishly at that. "That doesn't seem very fair. They were only doing what they were ordered to."

Dende shrugged his shoulders. "That's what all the kingdoms were like back then, even after the founding of the Head House. In fact, those very things still happen in all the houses, Higher and Minor. But then, you know a lot more about it than I."

The dark-haired youth couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that. "I do?"

"Well, yeah." The little green man halted in the corridor, turning his head to look at him, which caused Gohan to stop as well. "After all that stuff you went through, ya know?"

"Are you talking about the bounty hunters?"

"No, I mean the…" he trailed off. "Yes, the bounty hunters," he stated a little louder than normal.

"But what do the Houses have to do with them?" he asked.

Dende shrugged again before starting to walk again, Gohan following after him. "I do not know about that for I am a simple servant. Perhaps your lady friend may know more."

That caused Gohan to snort. "As if she would. She seems to prefer me staying in the dark about everything."

"Women, they always like to keep their secrets."

"Amen."

* * *

The rest of the journey was one in silence. Eventually they reached the exit, which turned out to be a cave. Upon reaching open air, the arid air of the desert hit them, making Gohan wish they stayed in the tunnel for a little longer.

Unfortunately, Dende wanted to continue their journey and they went out into the maze of rocky plateaus and sand. Thankfully, the green man had left some supplies at the cave's mouth for them to use, one of which was a cloak for Gohan to hide beneath. That was proving useful as they transverse the rocky, dusty area.

Thankfully they reached the rendezvous point as the sun began to set, which turned out to be an oasis. Between the shade provided by the palm trees and the cool water, this was definitely the place to be.

Though it did raise some concerns. "You sure this is a safe place to be?" Gohan questioned his guide. "Surely people would be looking for a place like this."

"Most travelers stick to the main road that leads to the Monkey Lands," Dende responded. "Not many people know the location of this oasis, or even the other ones we will be stopping at—but I do. For now we are safe."

"So we're safe here?"

"Totally safe."

"And no one will accidentally find us."

"That is a mathematical impossibility."

"What are the odds?"

"Something around a hundred million to one."

That was when a heavy thud occurred behind Gohan. Jerking his head around, he was taken back when he saw Sharpner lying on the ground, dragging himself towards the pool of water. "Water…" he croaked out through chapped lips. "Water…"

Bewildered, Gohan looked to Dende, who had the good sense to look just as astonished as him. "I guess this is the one in a hundred million," the young man quipped, receiving a nod from the green man in response.

"Side…kick…" the blond moaned then. "Water…please…I'm…dying…"

Returning his sight to the man, Gohan wondered for a brief moment if he should before he sighed and walked to Sharpner, hooking an arm around the blond's shoulder. Surprisingly, Dende appeared on the other side, copying the dark-haired youth's action. Deciding not to turn away offered help, the two then dragged Sharpner to the water pool, dropping his face onto the edge with a wet _splat!_

For a moment, Sharpner just laid face first in the water before he shot his head up, gasping for air and then dropping it right back into the water. This happened again and again until the blond man pulled his head away and turned his body to lie on its side along the water's edge. "I thought I was going to die," he breathed out raggedly.

However, there was something nagging at the back of Gohan's mind. "Uhh, aren't you supposed to be in a dungeon back in Dabara?"

Sharpner eyed his tiredly, but responded with, "Do you think a simple dungeon can keep me locked up?"

"Well, yeah, I had thought that way."

"Pfft, what kind of fool do you take me for? There is no jail cell that can keep my greatness confined! Using my superior strength, I bent the bars apart and walked right on out. Any guard that tried to stop me fell beneath my superior intellect and skill. The Ladies of the castle were so impressed with my feats that they wanted me for themselves, but I had to turn them all down, like any self-righteous hero should. This riled them up to no end that they followed me outside of the castle. To lose them, I had to leave the city entirely, yet they refused to be denied! They marshaled hunting parties to find me!"

As Gohan listened to the long-winded story, for some reason he was beginning to piece together a completely different story, one buried within Sharpner's own. It was as if he were seeing Sharpner's words as text and beneath those words were completely different ones. "So let me get this straight, you were lucky enough to have the guard forget to lock your door, so you slipped out and tried to find a way out. Meanwhile, any guards you ran into you either ran away from, or they accidentally knocked themselves out. You then ran into some of the castle's Ladies who you began flirting with, which caused them to want to kill you. You had to flee and left the city with an armed guard in hot pursuit."

Yeah, that definitely sounded right.

Despite that, Sharpner glared at him. "Like I said, I used my superior strength—"

"However, he did it," Dende interjected then, pointing a finger at something. Looking, Gohan soon saw a trail of footsteps, ones clearly made by Sharpner as he approached the oasis. "He left a trail that would lead anyone following him here."

Gohan felt his stomach drop at that, his face paling. "That can't be good."

"We must leave," the green man declared, hurrying towards their packs. Opening one, he pulled out a few canteens, placing them on the ground as he pulled out a couple more. "Quickly, we need to fill these up with water and leave before the search parties arrive."

"But what about Videl?" the young man demanded. "We were supposed to wait for her."

"Videl? The babe?" Sharpner questioned, scrambling up onto his knees in interest. "You mean she's coming here too? For me? What luck!"

Dende just shook his head. "We cannot wait for her, not with…him," with this he nodded towards the kneeling Sharpner, "here. If you wish to reach the Monkey Kingdom, we must leave now."

"I vote we wait," Sharpner declared then. "This is too much of a sausage fest for me and I demand we wait for sexier company."

"You know, they execute all fugitives from the castle's dungeon," Dende pointed out.

Sharpner stared at him for a moment before responding, "Like I said, I vote we get the hell out of here."

Helplessly, Gohan looked from one man to the other. They had a plan and they were supposed to follow it. They couldn't leave Videl behind, not like this. She was supposed to lead him to the Monkey Lands like she wanted to!

"Please, Sir," Dende began, urgency appearing in his voice, "we must go. The Lady would want it so."

Swallowing a growing lump in his throat, Gohan nodded. "Okay, we leave."

* * *

Videl's outfit can be found in megaminoenin's fanart _A Lady and her Escort_ and _Wardrobe 01_. It's the one titled Just Right.

To Zerolink100: Ironically enough, the two didn't banter much in the original, what with Erasa wandering the four kingdoms at random.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	19. The Lord's Pass

Gohan sighed as he trudged over rocky terrain. Something felt wrong, what with him being out here, crossing over the harsh landscape of the northern Demon lands. There was something missing and it kept eating at the youth with every step that he took.

It wasn't all that hard to figure out what the source of that feeling was. He had been forced to leave Videl back in Dabara, no doubt the dark-haired woman discovering their abandoned camp and figuring out that they had left without her. Though she had shown tenacity in tracking Gohan down for a whole year, the youth felt that this wouldn't be happening a second time.

Case in point: he was traveling with a guide that Videl had picked out herself and obviously trusted. That fact alone shouted that Gohan probably wouldn't see his usual travel companion for some time. In a small way, the dark-haired man resented Dende's presence, even if the little green man had done nothing to earn such contempt. Gohan had to remind himself of this over the last couple days of travel in order not to really begin hating the demon.

Then, of course, there was Sharpner.

"Kami Almighty! Why is it so hot?!" the blond complained loudly, his face a bright red. Unlike Gohan and Dende, the blond didn't have his own cloak and hood, which protected their head and body from the sun's hot rays. It didn't help matters that when offered a makeshift substitute, the guy had fiercely denied it, stating that it crimped his style. Apparently sweating and sunburned skin were part of his style.

"Sir, if I were you I wouldn't talk too loud," Dende warned him, talking in his normal tone. Despite the fact that the green demon had only met Sharpner at the first oasis, he treated the blond man with the same respect he did Gohan. It was refreshing to see such friendliness, even in such an unforgiving environment.

Of course, Sharpner didn't head their guide's advice. "And why shouldn't I? It's not like anyone's going to hear me. See, watch this: MY NAME IS SHARPNER! HEAR ME ROAR!"

Sharpner's voice echoed throughout the rocky plateaus that surrounded them, bouncing off the stone walls until the sound died down. Looking haughtily at Dende, he then said, "See? Nothing happened."

"But speaking that way allows moisture to escape," the little green man replied, not sounding the least bit put out—a small miracle considering how trying Sharpner could be. "That can lead you to becoming dehydrated faster and eventually kill you. So you see, it is best if you—"

"You mean I could die out here?!" Sharpner shrieked then. "Why do you lead me out here then? We have to go back! This is insanity and not the kind you bring home with you after you pick up that crazy chick at the pub!"

"But if we go back, we'll all be arrested and executed by dusk; or they could just kill us outright."

"But…but you're not supposed to kill the hero..." the blond responded, though a lot more subdued. Apparently he remembered what he managed to escape from and wasn't all that eager to return to it. "Heroes only die in tragic moments that make a story a sad one, or they die after having amazing sex with a babe and having twenty kids for the wife to care of."

"I wouldn't know about that, Sir," Dende told him earnestly, coming to a stop next to one of the plateaus, this one rising at a complete vertical slope. Pressing a hand against it, he peeked around it, searching for something that only he seemed to know about. At this, Gohan and Sharpner stopped behind him, waiting for the demon's next move.

Whatever it was he searched for, either Dende found it or he didn't, but he finally began walking again, his followers keeping pace behind him. "This region is very unforgiving," the little demon continued then. "Many heroes in our long history have entered this place and never returned."

Sharpner gulped audibly at that. "You mean…they… _died_ out here?"

"Possibly. Or they reached the border with the Monkey Kingdom and were slaughtered. Either way, it did not end well for them."

For once, Sharpner was quiet, which Gohan began to relish in. Silence was a rare commodity when it came to the blond and a person had to take advantage of every second they—

"Aren't we going to the Monkey border?" Sharpner questioned then.

"Yes, we are."

"But…then that would mean…why are we going to a border with people that will try to kill us?!"

Oh sweet, merciful Kami, strike him down now.

"That was centuries ago," Dende replied pleasantly. "They don't try to actively kill anyone now. Why, the last time any of that happened was when Lord Piccolo kidnapped…"

There it was again, that trailing off just when something big was about to be revealed. Gohan narrowed his eyes at that. He was beginning to think that there really was something people were keeping from him. Their entire journey thus far had Dende trail off like that several times, as if he remembered that it was something he couldn't talk about, or had been threatened to be quiet about. Either way, it involved the green demon ending his words that way. There had to be some sort of conspiracy going on and every one was in on it.

Of course, Sharpner never noticed it—bless his heart—and just took it as his cue to keep talking. "Still, they could try to kill us. I mean, Monkeys and Demons don't exactly get along, ya know."

"Yes, Sir, I'm well aware of that. But that is where you two will be safest and the Monkeys would harbor you just to spite the other Houses."

There was a moment of silence. "So…what is the Monkey Kingdom like? I've never been."

At this, Gohan began to listen. Like Sharpner, he hadn't been there either and it would be a good idea to know a little about the place.

"Nothing like this, I assure you," Dende answered. "It's full of forests and cool weather. We're almost there, so we'll be seeing the border very soon. In fact, do you see that pass up ahead?"

Moving his eyes away from the little green man, Gohan looked ahead to find two rocky mountains, a crevice separating the two. When neither he nor Sharpner said anything, Dende continued, "On the other side of that pass we should be able to see the border. It'll be about an hour's climb down from there."

"Then the sooner we get there, the better," Gohan spoke up. Seeing Dende turn his head to look at him, giving the dark-haired youth a nod, Gohan just returned the action, utterly ignoring Sharpner. The three of them continued their walk, reaching the crevice before too long and entered it one at a time, Dende taking the lead and Sharpner at the end.

As they wormed their way through the pathway, Gohan began to feel ill at ease. There was just something about this place he didn't like. Eyes glancing from side to side, he could almost swear he heard whimpering—a child's whimpering. Then there were these voices, deep and intense. One…no, two sounded as if they were looking for something, or someone.

Something bad had happened here a long time ago, he could feel it.

And then the crevice opened out, a feeling of relief overwhelming Gohan. Releasing a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding, the dark-haired youth sucked in some fresh air, looking out at the horizon far away.

His eyes dropped then. Immediately he noticed a pathway leading down through rocky edifices, ending a short distance away from lush green trees—Monkey Land. They were almost there.

"Careful with your steps," Dende suddenly warned him and Sharpner. "The path down is very treacherous."

"No kidding," Sharpner remarked as he looked downwards. "Just looking at it makes me feel like my neck broke."

Dende merely motioned at them then, leading them to a path. This time there was no talking amongst them as they worked their way down. No one wanted to distract themselves as they made the descent, taking their time lest they make a mistake. What was supposed to be an hour felt like it was much longer. Eventually, they reached the bottom, much to their collective relief.

Now all that stood between them and the trees was a barren plain, roughly a hundred yards or so. It seemed so inviting, so—

Suddenly, Dende grabbed onto Gohan's hood and yanked it further down his face. "Wha?" he squawked out before he heard his guide shush him quiet. It became readily apparent why he had done that as three men appeared out of nowhere. They were clearly demons from their less than human appearance, not to mention the armor they wore were clearly Demon-made. Oh, this couldn't be good.

"Halt!" one of them barked out, causing Gohan to flinch, his body shrinking in on himself as he lowered his face to stare at the ground. Next to him, he heard Sharpner go "eep!" before hiding behind the dark-haired youth as best he could.

"What business have you here?" the same guard demanded hoarsely. "No one uses the Lord's Pass, not unless they're up to no good."

"Ah, well you see, Sir, we are most definitely not up to no good," Dende replied innocently. "We are three travelers that got lost in the desert and seek refuge from the heat."

"Lost, huh?" the guard repeated dubiously. "How'd you get lost?"

Dende then pointed at Sharpner and said, "He got drunk a couple nights ago and ran away from camp. My friend and I," at this he indicated Gohan and himself, "tried to stop him, but we went in too many circles to return to our camp. So we just figured if we kept heading north—"

"You'd reach Monkey Lands and get unlost," another of the guards grunted. For some reason he looked like an oversized pig, snout and all. "We've heard that story before, Kid, and like all the other times, it's a lie."

"Damn straight it is!" Sharpner agreed, much to Gohan's chagrin. "I mean, I am certainly not dumb enough to run out into a desert while drunk. Streaking maybe, but never drunk."

"He did that too," Dende immediately spoke, seizing on the blond's words. "We were lucky enough to get him his shirt and pants, but completely lost his cloak. As you can see, he's paying for that."

"Paying for? What are you talking about?" Sharpner demanded to know.

Deciding he needed to help their cause, Gohan merely raised a hand up and pressed a finger against Sharpner's sunburned face. A second passed before the blond man let out a sharp shriek, jerking away from Gohan's finger as he slapped his hands against his face to protect it. Of course, that only caused the burning sensation he was feeling to become more intense and he continued to scream, jerking his hands away. "My face!" he cried out dramatically. "My face! Oh Kami, why does it hurt?!"

The guards just stared at the blond impassively before they looked to each other. A blue-skinned guard said, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to believe them."

"Same here," the pig guard agreed."

Turning back to the trio, the first guard then said, "Get out of here. And make sure that friend of yours doesn't come back here. His stupidity might be contagious."

"Make it stop! Make the pain stop!" Sharpner continued to sob.

"Thank you most kind Sirs," Dende thanked them before grabbing onto the sleeves of Gohan and Sharpner's shirts, tugging on them to lead them towards the border. Quickly, Gohan followed his green guide, keeping pace with him. Sharpner, on the other hand, was still crying, stumbling after them as he continued to make a scene.

A part of Gohan wanted to drag the blond with them, but a much stronger part demanded he get to the Monkey border. Sharpner was on his own as far as the dark-haired man concerned.

Unfortunately, they didn't make it. Gohan and Dende had reached the midway point of the plain when a whistling sound was made. It grew stronger and stronger with every passing second, causing the two to glance at each other to make sure they were hearing the same noise. "You hear that right?" Gohan asked nervously.

Dende nodded. "I do. It sounds like it's…"

"Coming from above us?" the youth finished. Slowly, the two tilted their heads up and then immediately dove in opposite directions of each other. A second later, what was best described as a thick tree trunk crashed right where they had been standing, breaking the ground and sending a large cloud of dirt into the air.

Coughing, Gohan tried to clear his lungs of the dirt, covering his face with his arms. Peaking around them, the youth took note of a man standing next to the tree trunk, his pink long coat and dark blue sleeves and pants immediately revealing his identity. Already, Gohan felt his stomach sink as he saw Tao Pai Pai casually looking at him, a smirk on his unshaven face.

"Oh dear me, I seemed to have missed you," the bounty hunter said, arms held behind him. "I was hoping to crush you with the tree. I do apologize for my miscalculation."

Immediately, Gohan scrambled onto his feet, pulling out his dagger from his boot. Pointing the tip of the weapon at Tao Pai Pai, he slowly began edging towards the border, eyes frozen on the other man.

Of course, Tao Pai Pai knew exactly what he was doing. "You're almost to sanctuary," he commented offhandedly. "If you were to try and run, you might just be able to make it." Suddenly, he snorted. "Well, actually your corpse will just make it right after I finish hallowing you out with my sword."

"Hey! What's going on here?!" a voice shouted, one Gohan felt some sort of relief from. Although they were the Demon border patrolmen, if they could provide a distraction for the thirty seconds he needed, then Tai Pai Pai wouldn't be a threat. Keeping track of the approaching guardsmen just over the bounty hunter's shoulder, Gohan waited to see what the dark-haired man would do.

Thankfully, Tao Pai Pai turned his head to regard the guards with disdain. "This matter does not concern you," he said dismissively.

The blue-skinned guard pulled out a wicked-looking sword, followed soon by his green-skinned and pig-looking comrades. "This is our jurisdiction and that makes everything our 'concern.'"

"If you do not wish to die, I suggest you leave."

"Us die?" the pig guard snorted. "He must be joking."

"I think we need to show him just who he's messin' with," the blue-skinned guard agreed.

Then with loud war cries, the patrolman charged, their swords held at their sides. All the while, Tao Pai Pai turned to face them, hands still behind his back. "So be it," he merely spoke.

At the same time, Gohan whipped away to face the treeline, his feet pushing off the ground as he began running for the border. He flipped his dagger in his hand, gripping it upside down to prevent it from stabbing him in the face. Arms pumping, the youth ran as fast as he could, the distance between him and the trees shirking. He didn't know what was happening in the fight, but he could definitely hear the screaming. Heck, he didn't even know where Dende was, but hopefully he was alright somewhere.

Unfortunately, he didn't make it. Something large and heavy slammed into Gohan's back, knocking him off his feet with a cry and sent him crashing to the ground. Thankfully, whatever hit him rolled off of his body, allowing him to scramble back onto his feet. Yet, the moment he was looking up, he hesitated at the body of green-skinned guard, his armor tore and broken in several places and his eyes rolled up into his skull. Purple blood leaked out of cuts on his body and out of his mouth and nose. Alarmingly, a puddle of the purple blood began to grow around him.

"That's as far as you go."

Shaking himself out of his daze, Gohan was back on his feet, back to the border and dagger once more held out in front of him. Tao Pai Pai was standing a short distance away, which there was no possible way he should have been. Far away were the other two guards and they looked just as lifeless as the green-skinned one.

Dear Kami, this man was a monster.

"Now where were we?" the bounty hunter asked coyly, casually strolling towards the youth. "Oh yes, I remember now. You were about to die."

Gohan held his ground. There was no point in trying to get to the border now, not when this guy could catch him in an instant. This confrontation was inevitable now.

 _Sorry, Videl, I almost made it._ Baring his teeth, the young man charged at the bounty hunter, holding his dagger at to his side as he closed the distance. At the last moment, he lashed out at the weapon, aiming to stab the blade in the man's face.

The entire time Tao Pai Pai watched coolly, right up to the attack. In response, he shot up his right hand and grabbed Gohan by the wrist, stopping the strike cold. "The exuberance of youth," he quipped mostly to himself. "How I enjoy stamping it out."

Pain ripped through Gohan's wrist as Tao Pai Pai twisted it, making it turn in a way it was clearly not meant to. Fingers spasming, the dark-haired youth dropped his dagger with a cry. As the weapon tumbled end over end towards the ground, the bounty hunter shot a foot out at the last second, catching the dagger, the hilt balancing on the top of his boot. Staring at the sight, the youth watched as Tao Pai Pai flicked his ankle up, kicking the dagger into the air where he caught it with his left hand.

Realizing what was about to happen, the young man shot his other hand out just as the dark-haired man stabbed at him, his palm pressing up against the bounty hunter's fingers on the dagger's hilt. His hand wrapped around the bounty hunter's, Gohan poured as much strength as he had to hold the weapon at bay, doing his best to push aside the increasing pressure on his hyper-extended wrist.

"So there's a little fight in you," Tao Pai Pai remarked. "A useless effort really."

Suddenly, the bounty hunter released his grip on Gohan's hand and pressed his own against the younger man's chest. Gohan wasn't sure what exactly happened, but the next thing he knew a strong force slammed into him, knocking the air out of his lungs as he was sent him flying off his feet, the dark-haired youth letting out a yelp of surprise before he landed on his back on the ground.

"Ow," he moaned as he rolled to aside. The youth wasn't sure what had happened exactly, but he was pretty sure magic was involved. It was the only explanation he had.

That thought got pushed aside though, when a stabbing pain erupted in his left shoulder, causing him to scream. Jerking his head, he caught sight of the hilt of his dagger protruding from the back of his shoulder, telling the youth it had just been thrown expertly at him. Clenching his teeth tightly, Gohan raised a hand up and grabbed the hilt, pulling the dagger out as he hissed from the pain. Tossing it away, he then steadied himself on the ground, holding himself up by his hands and knees. He could feel warm blood trickling down his back, wetting his shoulder as the cloth of his shirt was dyed red.

Breathing hard, Gohan tried to regain his composure and he was hardly succeeding. He already knew he didn't stand much of a chance against this bounty hunter, even more so now that he was injured. Dende was nowhere to be found and Sharpner was…oddly silent, though his sunburn wouldn't have let him helped even if the blond was inclined to. Looking up, the dark-haired youth soon realized he was right next to the fallen Demon guard. Immediately his eyes focused on the man's sword, which he snatched up before getting back onto his feet.

As he held the sword before him, Tao Pai Pai looked on with cool indifference. "Your struggle is beginning to bore me." Reaching to his side, he grabbed the hilt of a sword and pulled it out of its scabbard. Gohan frowned at the sight of the blade. It had a rather thin base while its upper body was wider and had a softer curve. He hadn't seen swords like that before.

Holding the sword high, its tip pointing to Gohan, Tao Pai Pai raised his other hand up and rested his palm against the blade's edge. "Come, show me the skills of a Monkey nobleman," the bounty hunter challenged.

The two held their poses for a moment before they began to circle each other, drawing closer and closer. Gohan did his best to keep his nerves from getting the better of him, but his anxiety was getting stronger and stronger with every step he took. The anticipation of the inevitable clash climbed higher and higher as each foot disappeared between them.

And then Tao Pai Pai attacked, dropping his extended arm as he thrust his sword at Gohan's head. Instinctively, the young man shot his blade up, blocking the thrust as the clash of steel rang out into the air. Allowing his sword to spring off the block, the bounty hunter arced the weapon through the air before swinging it low and up at the dark-haired youth's stomach. Again, Gohan blocked it by dropping his own sword down; however, this time he countered, sending a slash at his opponent's head.

Tao Pai Pai backed off a step, dodging the swing, then just as quickly leapt at the youth, lashing out with his leg and slamming his foot into Gohan's chest. The air knocked out of his lungs, Gohan stumbled backwards, sword dropping down to his side as he tried to regain his balance.

The moment the bounty hunter landed on the ground, he pressed his advantage as he swung his blade high and then down. Again, Gohan got his sword up and blocked the blow, though he immediately realized something was wrong. The previous strikes he had blocked had been much stronger than this one. It was almost as if this one were a feint.

That thought proved right as Tao Pai Pai drew his weapon back, angling his body to a side as he held his sword on his far side. Getting into the youth's personal space, the bounty hunter used shot his free arm up, using his forearm to block Gohan's sword arm, preventing the youth from moving it.

The next thing Gohan knew, Tao Pai Pai thrust his sword forward, impaling the dark-haired youth in his stomach. A choked gasp caught in his throat, eyes widening from the pain. His arms and legs went weak as the strength in them drained out, Gohan dropping his sword to the ground before he fell back. Roughly, he landed on the ground, a grunt escaping his lips as he stared up at the blue sky.

For some reason, this all seemed familiar.

And then Tao Pai Pai appeared in his sight, looking down at him dispassionately. "At last your luck has run out. This time, however, I plan on removing your head. I'm sure you understand."

With every word the bounty hunter spoke, the more distant it sounded. The edges of Gohan's vision blurred and darkened before they overtook his vision. Faintly, he could make out some noise, but whatever it was he didn't know nor cared—not anymore at least.

The feeling of falling began to take him, a pleasant warmth filling him up. Again, Gohan got a sense of déjà vu, but he didn't care. Everything was just a bother and he didn't have to deal with it anymore. Nothing mattered anymore.

Darkness soon was replaced with something else though; sights of people he had seen over the last year, from the villagers that were nice to him to the more unique personalities. Sharpner, Lord Roshi, Lord Krillen and the Lady Eighteen…Nam and his people…Erasa…Videl in her men's clothes…

And then there was the woman, the one he'd been searching for so long. Those worried blue eyes always watching made his heart ache and for that Gohan felt regret. It looked as if he wouldn't be able to let her know he was alright. Strange, though, how she seemed to resemble Videl when she wore that dress in Dabara. He hadn't noticed that before…

Very…strange…indeed…

* * *

To Zerolink100: Smothered and promptly dies. That's about the only way this is going to end after all the effort that's been put into it.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	20. A Poorly Conceived Plan

_Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there was a land ruled by four houses..._

 _..._

 _With gritted teeth, Mr. Piccolo said "If you would quit_ interrupting _, I could tell you what comes next."_

 _"Okay, Mr. Piccolo!" the young boy chirped._

 _..._

 _"Oomph!" Gohan said as he was tackled to the ground. Dropping his sword, his arms wrapped around his attacker, finding a thin, short body. Looking down, he found Videl burying her face into his chest, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. Huh, that must've been a record somewhere with the number of times the princess had been hanging onto him without trying to choke him. And…and what was that wet sensation he was feeling on his shirt? Blinking his eyes, the only thing that could be causing any wetness on his shirt was Videl's face._

 _Was she crying?_

 _"Y-you stupid jerk," he suddenly heard her say into his chest. "Don't scare me like that." At that, her arms tightened on him, causing Gohan to unconsciously wrap his arms around her. It was then he discovered that the princess was trembling._

 _..._

 _"Alright young man, I have a deal for you!" Roshi announced, catching most of the people in the room off guard. "If you can go out and rescue a princess and bring her here, I will release your friend! How does that sound?"_

 _Gohan's eyes lit up brightly. "Yeah, yeah! I can do that!"_

 _"And make sure she's pretty. I don't want any of them ugly ones. If you bring an ugly one, I'll make sure Piccolo is hung within the hour!"_

 _The young man nodded his head frantically. "I understand. Pretty princess, got it."_

 _..._

 _"What's your name?" he decided to say in an attempt to change the subject. "I don't think I caught it."_

 _The look on the man's face was like a child getting a present from his parents—completely ecstatic. "I am the one and only Sharpner. But you can call me Sharpner."_

 _..._

 _"So, which way do you think we should go?" Mr. Piccolo asked._

 _Gohan stared at his two choices before nodding his head and grinning. "I say we head left. Looks promising."_

 _Mr. Piccolo nodded his head. "Alright, we go right."_

 _..._

 _And it was because of these thoughts that he was shocked when a loud, high-pitched cry filled the room and he was subsequently tackled by the noblewoman. Well, more like pushed back several feet, but somehow he remained standing. "My baby!" the Lady Chichi cried, tears streaking down her face. "My baby's come home!"_

 _..._

 _"Umm, neither of us are princes. In fact, we're here to rescue you so we can take you back—"_

 _"What do you mean you're not princes?!" Erasa shrieked. "Only princes rescue princesses from towers, not commoners!"_

 _"But, we are commoners," Gohan replied._

 _..._

 _"You sick freak!" Videl screamed at him. "How_ DARE _you take advantage of a sleeping girl?"_

 _Feeling his survival instinct kicking in, Gohan began to crawl away from the lunatic girl as quickly as he could. "I-I was just trying to help!" he cried out, trying to defend himself. The mallet striking the ground behind him told him she didn't quite believe him. "I th-thought you were under a spell!"_

 _"I was just taking a_ nap _! Now hold still and feel my justice, swine!"_

 _..._

 _"Videl? Did you hear me?" he asked, walking into the room and slowly approaching her. Once again, the princess didn't answer him._

 _"V-Videl? Princess, are you okay?" he stuttered, growing more and more anxious. Was she refusing to talk to him again? What did he do this time?_

 _However, this time the princess responded to him. "…fine," she said, her voice low, almost hypnotic. "In fact…"_

 _The princess slowly turned around and looked at the young man with eyes so smitten, he almost became alarmed. Almost. The way she was looking at him, the way her hair fell framed her face captivated Gohan. Then with a voice full of delight, she said "I've never felt better."_

 _..._

 _"I believe that is quite enough," a smooth, somber voice said. Gohan and Videl moved their eyes to see a short man of light purple skin, spiky white hair styled into a Mohawk, and rich-looking clothes. "We do not tolerate violence in this village," Lord Shin continued as his dark eyes took in the three. "Now we shall have to punish you with more violence."_

 _..._

 _"Is there anyway I can make it up to you?"_

 _Videl's head tilted up, some of her hair falling out of the way of her face to reveal a small smile. Her eyes looked him over before she said, "I think we can work something out."_

 _"What do you have in mind?"_

 _"Just use your imagination. I'm sure you'll figure it out."_

* * *

A canopy of green greeted Gohan eyes the moment he could see. The tickling of blades of grass with the intermingling of twigs and leaves pressed against his back, providing him some sort of bedding to lie on. None of these things mattered though as the young man was overwhelmed with urge to gasp.

The moment he sucked in air, he spat it back out in a violent fit of coughing. Rolling onto his side, Gohan coughed hard and long, feeling as if lead had settled in his lungs. Faintly, he was aware of hands grabbing onto his shoulder and side, gentle and reassuring.

"It's okay…" a voice said to him, though it did nothing for the youth as he continued to hack and gasp. Why couldn't he stop coughing? "You're going to be okay, Sir. Everything is okay."

Finally, Gohan stopped his fit, feeling his body go mercifully limp. A kaleidoscope of memories assaulted his head, jumbling and mixing together to form a collage of random imagines and moments. His head was actually hurting from the rush. And yet...there was something missing...

For some reason, there were some that were a lot more prominent than others. Traveling with Piccolo, meeting Videl, finding out about his lineage were some of the better ones. Less nice were, well, Tao Pai Pai running his sword through him. He…he had actually died.

Or so he thought. Dead men didn't lay in grass, assuming the afterlife didn't have grass. Hmm, what if it did? Was this the afterlife? Those thoughts were pretty important and it didn't help that someone was shaking him to get his attention.

The dark-haired youth looked to who was clasping his shoulder and suddenly he knew who was speaking to him. Slowly, Gohan turned his head to look over his shoulder, seeing Dende kind face behind him. The little demon had his green hands resting on him in an attempt to comfort him. "All is well," Dende said, just as simply as he always did.

"What…what happened?" Gohan asked, squinting his eyes to protect them from stray rays of light. For some reason the canopy of tree leaves didn't block out all sunlight.

"You were hurt by that man," Dende replied to him. A flash of Tao Pai Pai's sword running through the dark-haired youth's body reared itself in Gohan's mind again, causing him to wince. "Fortunately, the sound of your battle attracted a patrol of Monkeys and they drove the man away."

Monkeys? Prying his eyes away from Dende, Gohan soon became aware of several Monkey guardsmen standing at attention, their easily-recognizable body armor and shoulder guards catching his attention. There were also swords and spears in the guards hands, though a few of them were pointed right at Dende's back.

However, the young man recalled a few Demon patrolmen that had taken on Tao Pai Pai and it had clearly not gone well for them. What was the difference here? Seeing his confused look, Dende continued you, "Apparently the…your friend at the palace sent a messenger ahead of us to inform a nearby garrison of our arrival. There's an entire unit of your house's men watching the border."

 _Videl._ She had to help him even now. And he had left her behind.

Apparently his green friend was still talking and that realization made the young man return his attention to the Demon. "You were then brought over to Monkey territory to prevent another attack."

"The sword," Gohan spoke up. "The one in me. What happened to that? Should that have…?"

"Kill you, yes, and for a moment it looked that way," Dende answered him. "Fortunately, I am familiar with healing magic and used it to revive you. That is the only reason why I am still alive surrounded by your countrymen."

Why did Dende make it sound as if he could do…oh, right. He was a prince and all. Sighing, Gohan rolled onto his back, Dende backing away to let him do so. Once there, he then sat himself up, one of the guards stepping up to rest a hand on his back to provide support. "Thanks," the dark-haired youth grunted before addressing the others, "Dende's fine everyone. No one is to kill him."

A tension in Dende Gohan just realized he had drained away in relief. At the same time, the guards stopped pointing their weapons at the green demon, backing off a step but keeping in range of attacking the little man should the need arise.

Returning his attention back to Dende, the young man said, "Thank you for all your help. I don't think I would've gotten here without you."

Dende just gave him a friendly smile and a nod. "It was a pleasure for me."

That caused Gohan to frown. "Since you're a Demon and all, why did you help me? I mean, you really didn't have to and could've just as easily turned me over once we left Dabara."

For once, the little man seemed taken back, his eyes glazing over in thought. When they focused, he answered, "You are very well known in all of the kingdoms for your…" At this he trailed off, giving a nervous glance at the Monkey guards. "…history. The former Lord Piccolo is a kinsman of mine and we are forever grateful for your intervention."

A jolt shot up Gohan's spine. Not only Videl, but Piccolo was helping him? Giving Dende a closer look, he could definitely see the resemblance, though he wasn't sure of what the exact connection was, be it brothers, cousins, or hell, some marriage linking their families from a long time ago. It could be just about anything really.

Apparently his shock was all over his face as Dende said, "You seemed alarmed by this."

Shaking off his daze, Gohan reached a hand up to the back of his head, scratching it. "Sorry, it's just…well, I didn't realize there were people all that fond of me in the Demon Kingdom."

"There are many people who would help you as long as you know where to look," Dende replied mysteriously. "Though the family has lost much of its former luster, we continue to thrive when everyone else tried to stamp us out."

Gohan wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he didn't even try. In a way, there really wasn't anything to say to that. That just left his primary concern with Videl. She had stayed behind to let him get this far and he wasn't going to leave her in Dabara forgotten. If it hadn't been for Sharpner, they…they…

Wait a second, where was Sharpner?

Looking to Dende was a questioning look, he asked, "What happened to Sharpner? I don't see him any—"

"Siiiiiiiiidekiiiiiiiick!" an all-too-familiar voice shouted, causing everyone to look at its source. A short distance away was a still-red Sharpner, who was being held up by his arms by a couple of Monkey guards, both of whom were doing their best to look serious, but were clearly annoyed. "Tell these gorillas to let go of me!" the blond ordered, oblivious to the scowls he received from those words. "I thought we were friends! Partners! After everything we've been through together!"

"Why is it I wish I never met him?" Gohan asked rhetorically, to which Dende merely nodded next to him. In fact, all of the guards were nodding in mutual agreement with that statement. "Let me guess, when Tao Pai Pai attacked he—"

"He cowered behind a rock while praying for Kami that he didn't start to peel," Dende finished for him.

"What shall we do with him, your highness?" one of the Monkey guards asked.

Gohan sighed before he registered the address. It just sounded weird having someone call him by a title that he hadn't had the chance to get used to. Throw in all the time he'd been wandering around and it made that respect even more foreign-sounding. "I suppose he needs to be taken somewhere," the youth mused out loud. "Though I really have no idea what to actually do with him."

There was a moment of silence before Sharpner reacted. "After all we've been through, this is how you treat me?" the blond asked betrayed. "I should have known. I should've known you'd try to sideline me before we reached the climax! You just want all the credit that goes to the main character!"

"You know, I know of a good lake around Nappa Valley," the Monkey guard suggested. "And there's plenty of large rocks around it. And rope."

A tempting offer, but Gohan had a conscious. He wasn't one to order a drowning, no matter how satisfying it would be. The guy had been trying to catch him for the reward money for so long and…and…

Well, now there was a thought.

"I think I'm going to need him, Kami help me," Gohan said, for some reason feeling a sense of dread filling him up. Was this what knowing you had a bad idea and still you were going to go through with it was like?

"As your highness pleases," the guard replied reluctantly, bowing his head before signaling to the other guards to commence the order.

Immediately, the two guards holding Sharpner up dropped him to the ground, the blond crying out from his stinging sunburn. "It still hurts! It still huuuurts!"

Gohan stared at the writhing blond youth before his shoulders sagged. This idea of his had better work out, otherwise he would need to have his head examined, which he was sure many of his countrymen were already thinking. One step at a time though, and at he had more orders to give to the Monkey patrolmen. Faintly, he wondered if he'd ever get use to that; ordering people around was just plain weird to him.

"Dende, do you have anywhere else you need to be?" he asked the green-skinned demon then.

Dende shook his head. "Nothing that I cannot do some other time."

Gohan nodded. "Great. I need to see Videl."

"If you're suggesting I sneak her out of Dabara, I'm afraid that is nigh impossible, Sir."

This time the dark-haired youth shook his head. "No, I have something else in mind and I don't think anyone is going to like it."

* * *

Rope, check. Rope tied around Gohan's wrists and neck, check. A miraculously healed Sharpner hanging onto rope, check. So far everything was going according to plan.

Gohan wished that was all that was going on.

"You know, I don't get you," Sharpner said, tugging on the rope as he led the Monkey prince behind him. "You spend all this time running away from me, thwarting my every attempt to arrest you, and now, when you were safe and sound in that kingdom of yours, you turn yourself over. I'm not sure whether to call you stupid, or stupider, Sidekick."

Gohan rolled his eyes. Frankly, he was wondering the same thing. So far his troubling thought from the previous scene was proving correct: it was a mistake to involve Sharpner. It wasn't that the blond youth was doing anything incorrectly even, it was his attitude. The guy just wouldn't stop talking and there had yet to be a silent moment between the two young men since they left the border.

There had been much protesting by his guards, but Gohan had been adamant in following through with his plan. In fact, he had assigned them with keeping eyes on the Monkey-Demon border in the event a similar crossing with Tao Pai Pai occurred, or if the entirety of the Demon military was chasing him. Thankfully, Dende was more than happy to help out, though he did have his own reservations. Regardless, everyone was doing as they were instructed and that left Gohan to listen through the consequences of involving Sharpner.

"Of course, if there was anyone that could bring you to justice, Sidekick, it would be me, the Hero. You gave me a good chase and even had me scared you let one of those unworthy bounty hunters catch you, but in the end everything is as it should be."

The dark-haired youth sighed. This would all be worth it, he told himself. _This is worth it, this is worth it._

"I'm sure they'll build monuments in my honor for this," Sharpner continued to brag. "I mean, the reward is more than enough for a humble guy like me, but as badly as these Demon folk want you, I'm sure they'll put my name up in history as the man that caught his own sidekick, he was really an arch enemy pretending to be a hero's sidekick. I mean, doesn't that story sound cool? It's got action, adventure, and surely a happy ending with bodacious babes."

 _This isn't worth it. This isn't worth it._

With pleading eyes, Gohan looked ahead in the barren wasteland that was Demon territory. Apparently Kami decided to take mercy on the youth as he made out a large tent top. Blinking his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, he nearly cried out in joy as he realized what he was seeing was real. He and Sharnper had finally made it to the main road that merchants used to travel through the Demon Kingdom. The large tent was the center of a pit stop, where travelers could restock their supplies and rest. For some reason no one ever built a more concrete place, but then Gohan wasn't privy to the people who usually used the place.

Eagerly, Gohan began to hurry to the tent, only for Sharpner to give a rough yank on the rope that stopped the dark-haired youth in his tracks, spinning around awkwardly. "Hey now, don't think you can escape from me that easily," Sharpner gloated. "I want to enjoy this."

Oh no, Sharpner wanted to keep talking about him. No, no way, Gohan couldn't take anymore of it. He had to convince the blond to hurry up. "But what about the reward?" he asked desperately. Upon seeing Sharnper eye him sharply, the dark-haired young man knew he had the blond guy's attention. "The sooner we get there, the soon you—"

"Get my glory!" Sharnper cried out excitedly. "What are we waiting for then? Get a move on, Arch Enemy!"

Suddenly, the blond was out in front of Gohan and the dark-haired youth found himself stumbling after him. At least Sharpner was in a rush now and he even wasn't talking, a miracle in and of itself. It didn't take long to reach the tent, finding out there were several other tents, large and small. Demons of all shapes and forms mingled around, either setting up camp or collecting supplies for their trip. None of them paid much mind to Gohan and Sharpner as they hustled in. Gohan was quick to note some armored Demon guards as well, much to his relief.

However, Sharpner didn't seem pleased by the lack of attention he was getting. Coming to a stop, the blond man placed his hands on his hips, looking about the place expectantly before his expression soured. Gohan just stood next to him, watching his companion grow more and more irritated.

"Ahem," Sharpner cleared his throat loudly, not getting anyone's attention. "Ahem, hem, hem!" he tried again, louder this time, yet receiving the same response. "Oh, c'mon! Somebody pay attention!" he screamed, causing several people to stop what they were doing and stare at him.

Seeing the muted response, Gohan began to look around elsewhere. As chance would have it, there was a post nearby with several parchments sticking to it. One of the parchments had an artist's rendering of the young man with a reward for…oh, wow, that was a lot of money! No wonder people had been trying to capture him!

However, right below his wanted poster, Gohan was quick to note another one, but this time it was for Sharpner. Unlike the professional sketch of himself, Sharpner's looked as if a child had drawn it, with embellishments added in, such as devil horns, a mustache, and crude writing with arrows pointing at the picture's face.

For some reason, Gohan got the feeling a certain princess had made this one.

"Uhh, Shaprner?" he spoke up, trying to get the irate blond's attention. "I think you might want to—"

"Shut up, Arch Enemy," Sharpner snapped. "I do all of this work to be worshiped as a hero and what do I get? A bunch of ninnies who look at me like I'm some commoner. A commoner! Since when have I ever been common?"

"…do…do you want an honest answer to that?"

The blond leveled him with a glare. "Of course I do. Why would I ask a question if I didn't want an answer? Seriously, you've been acting real dumb lately, Arch Enemy."

Deciding to ignore the blatant sarcasm and insult, Gohan just pointed at the wanted posters, to which Sharpner looked. For several moments, he seemed to be in a stunned silence before his face went red. "Why the hell is my price lower than yours?!" he shouted angrily. "I mean, look at all the zeros on yours! And then the lack of them on mine!"

Gohan shrugged his shoulders. He really didn't care about that, though Sharpner seemed to. "Perhaps it's because I'm your Arch Enemy?" he suggested.

"That still doesn't make sense! I'm the Hero! So if a hero goes to the dark side, which I haven't, then I'd be the more dangerous one out of the two of us. I mean, helloooo, good guys are always super strong and deadly because of all the evil they van…van…beat up!"

"Maybe you really need to show these people what you're made of?"

Before Sharpner could respond to that, the familiar sound of a blade scraping against its scabbard as it was drawn was made. Looking away from each other, the young men found themselves surrounded by armed Demon guards, each one holding the tip of their sword at the youths' necks. Somehow they had snuck up on the two during their riveting conversation and entrapped them. Then again, Sharpner was an attention-seeking void, so it was easy to get lost in his ridiculousness.

"Surrender and die," one of the guards ordered them.

"Never!" Sharpner proclaimed arrogantly. "I…wait, did you say 'and die'?"

"Yes, I did."

"Don't you mean 'or die'?"

"That too."

Sharpner frowned while Gohan blinked his eyes owlishly. What was going on here? "Uhh, pal, I think you're mixing something up," the blond said. "You can't mean 'and die' and 'or die' at the same time. It's just impossible. And if you do the first one, of course people will refuse to surrender. Even I know that."

"Not something you should tell men with swords," Gohan murmured lowly.

The guards did not look amused by this exchange, though a different guard from the first one spoke, "Fine, surrender _or_ die. Happy?"

Incredibly enough, Sharpner shook his head. "No, I want a third option."

Gohan turned his head as well as the other guards to stare at the blond young man. "What third option?" one guard asked incredulously.

"There's always a third option that bad guys don't give, but a hero can see," Sharpner declared. "Let me—"

That was when a Demon guard walked up behind the youth and slammed the flat side of his sword against the back of Sharpner's head. Instantly, the blond collapsed into a heap, his mouth hanging in mid-sentence as if it were ready to start up again. Thankfully that didn't happen.

"So," Gohan began as he looked to the guards. "Does this mean we're arrested, or can I just…go?"

The sword points suddenly closed in on him, poking him all over the young man's neck. Gohan resisted the urge to swallow lest he cut himself on the blades. "You'll be coming with us," the guard said before adding in a hardened voice, "in one piece or several, it doesn't matter to us."

The dark-haired youth just remained where he was. This was what he wanted after all, though he could've done without his neck being one wrong move from being sliced open. That would've been nice.

* * *

To Zerolink100: Well, at least most of his memory is back. At least the first story anyways lol.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	21. Back in the Slammer

As far as dungeons went, this one…was exactly like all the other ones Gohan had been in. Sure, that list was limited to the one at Head House and that one time in Gerova, but it was more than most people had been in.

At least the dark-haired youth had his own cell, though considering each cell was merely a cage next to a series of others, the stone wall in the back being the only side that was solid. You could look in every cell if you merely turned your head. There were six in total and Gohan was in one of them and for the time being he was alone.

Sharpner was probably being executed as the moment.

Oddly enough, Gohan hadn't seen the blond since they had been brought back to Dabara, the two being separated shortly after passing through the castle gates. Sharpner had made the biggest commotion he could as he was hauled towards the side of the tall, stone edifice while Gohan was taken right through the front door. It wasn't until the large wooden door was shut that he couldn't hear the blond man's shrill screaming.

The youth sighed. He was currently sitting on what passed for bedding in this place—a wooden board propped up against the wall with metal chains connecting it to a higher point along the wall. The only lighting he had was from a series of torches that were surprisingly effective in revealing the entirety of the dungeon. There was only a pathway in front of the cells, a larger area off to Gohan's right that had a desk and chair. Off in the corner was a stone staircase, one the youth had been forced down before being tossed in his current cell.

That had been several hours ago, or so Gohan thought. Considering there wasn't a window, he had no sense of time in here. Recalling his visits to Piccolo before he had left Head House, the young man had tried meditating, but found that to be difficult. He hadn't had the best patience for it growing up and unfortunately that trait was rearing its ugly head again here. It didn't help that everything in his prison was designed not to provide a hint of comfort.

Now if only he would get some visitors.

At that thought, the sound of a door opening caught the young man's attention, causing him to look towards the staircase. From the hole in the roof, he could make out shadows moving about on the upper floor, indicating that someone was up there. He could hear footsteps as someone began approaching the stairs. If he wasn't mistaken, the sound was rather high-pitched, so that potentially made his approaching visitor a woman, assuming that he was right about the shoe. If the steps were heavier, he would've known they were from boots, which most likely belonged to a peasant. The higher pitch indicated a smaller shoe and softer step, typical of a high class lady.

The mystery person soon began descending down the stairs. Much to Gohan's joy, it was Videl; though he had to admit he hadn't ever seen her this dressed up before. She was covered in what he could best describe as a royal cape, one reserved for Kings and Queens. It was a dark blue and flowed over her shoulders, clasped by a pendant over her chest. It hid most of her body from sight, making it appear as if the dark-haired woman was gliding down the stairs.

Reaching the bottom, she turned and began approaching Gohan's cell, giving the youth a clear look at the blue gown she wore beneath the cape. It faintly reminded the young man of the princess' old red-and-pink gown, though the pink was a light blue and the red a deep blue that blended with the cloak.

A glint of light caught his eye then, directing Gohan's attention to Videl's head. Perched on her dark locks was a crown, a pendant situated at its center with what appeared to be two horns curving up and out on either side of the jewel. Overall, the princess made quite an impression.

All the while, she had this somber look on her face, as if the fate of the world rested on her shoulders. It alarmed Gohan to see Videl look so severe, even as she came to a stop in front of the prison bars. She gazed blandly at him, as if they were strangers. That made the dark-haired youth feel a pang in his chest. Was this how Videl felt when he didn't remember her?

"You moron!"

Out of nowhere, Videl's face twisted with familiar fury as she seethed at him. Okay, there was the princess he knew and loved. Everything was right with the world.

"What the _hell_ are you doing back here after everything I had to do to get you _out_?!" she continued to berate him. If it weren't for the crown, Gohan would've said devil horns had sprouted out of her head. How convenient. "Do you have any idea how much danger you're in? You practically put yourself on the chopping block!"

Feeling refreshed from the tirade, Gohan merely raised a hand and waved at her. "Hi, Videl."

"Don't 'hi, Videl' me! Seriously, what where you thinking?! I want to know!"

Pushing himself off the wooden bed, Gohan began to walk to the bars. "I needed to see you," he replied.

"What, you couldn't write a letter? We've been over this, Demon lands are bad for you and it's going to take a hell of a lot more to get you out this time. Security is ramped up with you here and the envoy from Ribbon House is literally two floors above your head. Dende can't sneak you out like last time."

Hmm, Videl seemed intent on going over old news. Well, he would just have to fix that. Coming to a stop in front of her, the prison bars the only thing separating the two, Gohan just looked down at the enraged woman, a small smile on his lips. "I'm not worried about that," he told her.

"And why not?" she snapped at him. "Do you have a death wish? I wish you would've told me that before I put in all the effort I did to save you."

Okay, she was not letting that topic go without a fight. Time to distract her. "You know, I remember the first time we met," he said.

"Oh, good for you," Videl responded sarcastically. "Is that why you got yourself caught again, just to tell me this? Again, a letter would've sufficed."

"I had just entered your room and found you asleep," the young man began, not the least bit put out. The look on Videl's face would make it all worth it. "I thought you were under some sort of spell so I tried to break it by kissing you awake. It turned out you were just taking a nap and beat the crap out of me for it."

"Uh huh," the princess commented, not the least bit impressed. That was until she froze as his words clicked in her head, her gaze becoming unfocused for a moment before she sharpened it on the youth. "What…what did…" she murmured out.

Gohan pressed his advantaged. "You called me a pervert and pulled out that hammer of yours. By the time you were done, Erasa had shown up for a slumber party and then you were mad about her cutting her hair."

"That was because you made her cut it!" Videl automatically protested. "I…I…Kami, you really do—"

Before she could finished, Gohan bowed his head down and lowered himself, pushing his head as close to the princess as he was allowed and kissing her. It was as if they were back in the servant quarters, Videl returning the kiss as it grew more heated. Their arms slipped between the bars and grabbed onto the other. The smacking of their lips moving against each other was all Gohan could hear. Every passing second made him want his princess more and more and had it not been for the bars…well, they would be going further.

Despite their passionate display, they began to slow down until they gazed at each other with half-lidded eyes, sharing occasional chaste kisses. It ultimately fell to Videl to finally broach the topic as she asked softly, "When did this happen? I don't…how?"

"A near-death experience," Gohan answered her lowly, causing alarm to appear on her face. "Things got heated at the border, but as you can see, I'm—"

"What do you mean 'heated'?" Videl demanded as she pulled away, much to Gohan's chagrin.

"Well, Dende, Sharpner, and I ran into—"

"Sharpner? Why the hell was he with you?"

"He managed to escape your custody and stumbled upon me and Dende at the rendezvous point. He's why we weren't there when you came."

"Oh." Videl didn't look the least bit fazed by that news. "Well, I'm glad you went to Monkey lands. Now about that near-death thing?"

"Ran into Tao Pai Pai, ran a sword through me, stuff like that," Gohan replied nonchalantely.

There was a second's hesitation before the dark-haired youth felt a frantic hand running allover his abdomen, fingers dragging against his belly in search for a wound. "Are you okay? You're still not hurt from that, aren't you?" Videl demanded, eyes wide with panic.

Gohan would've tried to stop her, but he was finding the young woman's probing fingers to be ticklish and he was resisting the urge to giggle. "No worries, I'm alright," he said in good humor. "Dende knew a healing spell and saved me. Also, a patrol of my kinsmen heard the fight and rushed in. That scared Tao off."

Videl's shoulders sagged at that. "Thank Kami," she whispered softly, then to the dark-haired youth, "So that jogged your memory?"

"Most of it. I mean, there are still some things I'm unsure of—like why there's a bounty on my head and all." Gohan paused for a moment. Why was he a wanted man anyways? And what did it have to do with the Demon and Ribbon Houses? He hadn't really questioned it since the bounty hunters began hunting him down; all he knew was that he wanted nothing to do with them. Now seemed as good of a time as any to find out what the deal was.

"I guess we can't have everything," Videl commented as she looked to him. "I suppose you want to know what's going on."

"That would be nice to know, yes."

The dark-haired woman sighed. "I'm sure you know about the fall of the Demon House, right?"

"Yeah. That was my favorite bedtime story for the longest time."

Videl looked like she was about to continue but stopped at that remark. Eyeing him for a moment, as if she weren't sure she heard what she thought she heard, she then said, "Right…well, there was a lot of upheaval after that. Minor Houses, wannabe lords, and the old guard fought for control. As it so happened, my father came out on top and became the Head of the Demon House. He's spent the last several years getting everything in order."

Well, that was surprising. Gohan didn't know that much about Videl's father outside of him being extremely overprotective, if placing his daughter in a castle in the wastelands with a battlefield's worth of traps and a chastity belt were any indication. At least there was some reason for why he left Videl out there for so long, or so he assumed.

However, this did provide them with an opportunity. "So he would be the person to talk to about this bounty thing, right? We can get him to drop it!" Gohan felt rather proud about himself for that idea, at least for the last few seconds. He ended up frowning when he began to recall that there was a queen as the Demon House's Head.

Videl refusing to meet his eyes was his first tipoff that he had said something wrong. "That can't happen. My father's dead."

"Oh…I'm sorry, Videl." Gohan did his best to look apologetic, even placing his hand on her shoulder and giving her a comforting squeeze. Man, did things get awkward fast.

"That's not all either." Finally, the dark-haired woman looked up to him. "He was murdered and all the evidence points at you."

The youth couldn't have been hit harder than that. Gohan was positively floored by this news, his body going numb on him. "Oh…I…" he began to sputter, his eyes failing to meet Videl's. How could he when he was the one suspected for killing her father? He didn't think he had and was of the opinion that he hadn't. "This is awkward," he settled on saying.

"Just a little bit, yeah," Videl agreed.

"I mean, really awkward. This is more awkward than finding out you had boobs."

Videl scowled. "Okay, you went too far with that."

"You can't blame me for that misunderstanding! I mean, you were dressed like a guy."

"Says the man that stole my virginity and seen me naked more times than I can count."

"To be fair, you were the one that drank from the Unholy Grail."

"Still, you should've known—" Videl stopped herself, shaking her head roughly to free her mind from the tangent they were on. "That doesn't matter. We can talk about this never. There are more important things to talk about."

Well, she was right. With her father out of the picture, it wasn't like they could talk to the Demon Head to remove the bounty. They didn't even know who was next in line. "So who is in charge of the Demon House?" he asked.

Videl gave him a deadpanned look. "I thought that would be obvious."

Frowning, Gohan wasn't sure what she was getting at until he noticed the crown on her head again. He stared at it for several seconds, seeing the light glittering off of it until realization slapped him hard on the face. "Oh…you mean…"

Videl nodded before taking a step back and performing a curtsy. "Queen Bideru, at your service."

"That's…wow…" Then a thought occurred to Gohan. "Why Bideru? I thought youe name was Videl."

"Bideru is my real name," the young woman replied. "Videl's the name I give to my friends."

"But I called you Videl and we weren't friends."

"Erasa did walk in on us before we exchanged names. I wasn't about to give a pervert my real name. I mean, I didn't know who you were. You could've tried to ransom me or something."

Gohan wasn't sure where to go with that, so he didn't bother. "Huh, Bideru. Is it alright I can call you Videl instead?"

Videl stared at him. "Uhh, well, yeah?"

"Good, cause it'd be weird calling you Bideru after all this time. I mean, it doesn't come off the tongue as well as Videl, you know?"

"Gohan…stop talking about my name."

"Okay, alright." So yeah, weird. Did all rich people have different names like this? Kinda made Gohan wonder if he had other names. It wouldn't hurt to ask Chichi whenever he ran into her. "So, do you know who the person was that put a bounty on my head?"

The Demon Queen grimaced at that. "That…was...kinda me."

Gohan's jaw dropped. Oh, what a twist! He seriously didn't see that one coming. "Wha…how…why?" he sputtered out the best he could under the conditions.

"I didn't really have a choice about that!" Videl protested in defense. "There's…a lot of politics involved, especially with Ribbon House. I didn't want to, but I had Gero and Blue leaning on me to the point that I had to put one out for you."

By now Gohan had also stepped back from the bars, moving until he was sitting on his cell bed. He believed Videl when she said she hadn't a choice in the matter—no way would she willing want his head, even if he were involved in a murder plot, which he wasn't...or so he thought. "I think you need to tell me how all this happened," he said evenly.

Videl nodded. "Where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning would be nice."

There was a sigh. "Well, I'm sure you remember we were traveling together, ever since your mother's ball at Head House." Upon seeing the young man nod, she continued, "Well, during that time the Head of Ribbon House, Gero, approached my father looking for an alliance between Ribbon and Demon, or at the very least strengthen relations. There were talks of an arranged marriage between me and a prospective lord from Ribbon."

"You were engaged the whole time?" Gohan asked baffled. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Videl gave him a look. "Uhh, I'd been locked away in my own personal castle for years. I didn't have a clue about this, genius. I didn't even learn about this until after I assumed the throne. Anyways, you and I paid a visit to the Demon House so you could meet my father. It was after that my father was killed."

"Bad timing," Gohan surmised.

"No kidding, but it gets worse. We were on our way to the Monkey House when we ran into Tao Pai Pai. He attacked us and killed you. I did everything I could to revive you and just barely managed to. After that, I took you to Vegeta to recuperate when you decided out of nowhere to up and leave." Videl paused before adding, "I can't tell you how pissed off your mother was. I believe her words were 'He left again.'"

Oh, that was great. Gohan winced as he got the feeling if he ever went back to Vegeta, Chichi was going to lock him in a tower to keep him from traveling anymore. Or maybe just break his legs, that would have the same effect.

"So after that, I put a bounty on your head at Ribbon's insistence," Videl carried on. "I had wanted it under the condition that you were brought in alive, but Gero managed to make it DOA. So I sent people out to try and capture you." She then added dryly, "I'm sure you know how that all ended."

"With you coming out to help me," Gohan responded. "But if you were the Demon Head, how did you manage that? I mean, you're someone that people would miss."

Videl shrugged. "I made a big scene of grieving over my father and locked myself in my room. I then left instructions that Erasa was my regent and for all business to be taken up with her. Then I snuck out and tracked you down."

"And no one questioned this?" the young man asked incredulously.

"Of course people asked questions. Erasa was barely fending them off when we came here—at your insistence I might add. I had a lot of damage control to do while setting up your escape from here."

Which explained why Videl and Erasa dumped him in a servant's room and were gone for so long. All that was left was figuring out who really killed Videl's father and clearing his name. Yeah, that should be easy.

Of course having a lead would be great.

"I guess that just leaves me trying to figure out who really did kill your father," Gohan stated, scratching the back of his head. "Have any leads?"

The Queen huffed irritably. "Not a one," she grumbled, much to Gohan's dismay. "And believe me, I've had people looking under every rock, stream, tree, and building in the kingdom. About the only place I haven't checked is the empty space between Sharpner's ears and I'm really starting to consider checking to make sure."

Well, it seemed as if they had hit a dead end, not something Gohan was thrilled about. He couldn't simply say that he wasn't guilty and have everyone believe him. He needed evidence and it wasn't like the real killer was just waiting for him…

Waiting…for…him…

"You said we ran into Tao Pai Pai after we left Dabara, right?" Gohan questioned, looking up at the dark-haired woman.

"Uhh, yeah," Videl replied.

"And he was there to collect the bounty on my head?"

"Well yeah, that's all he ever seemed to care about."

"So if you were the one to put the bounty on me, how would Tao Pai Pai know about it when we were traveling together? I mean, you placed the bounty while I was running around the Four Kingdoms amnesic, right? Yet he found us before that, which is very premature; even more so if you consider that there had to be an investigation into your father's death after we left Dabara."

Videl picked up on what he was getting at. "You think Tao knows something about this."

"It's the only thing I can think of," the youth said with a shrug. "And it sorta sticks out now that I think about it."

"So you need to find him."

 _You?_ Gohan frowned. "You don't mean 'we'?"

"I can't leave. Believe me, if I could, I'd hunt that bastard down with you," Videl responded, a pleading tone in her voice. "But I have other responsibilities and I can't leave Dabara again—Gero would see to that. So it has to be you who has to do the dirty work."

Well, that was disappointing. Sure, he understood, but it didn't mean he had to like it. Perhaps it was for the best since this was his problem.

"Though if I were you, I wouldn't dawdle too much. Ribbon House is really pushing this marriage and it's not like I can just break it off for a wanted felon."

Oh, sure, add more pressure to this. How swell. "Anything else?" Gohan asked as pleasantly as he could. It came off sounding rather fake to him, but hey, things couldn't possibly—

"You've got until the end of the month to find and get Tao Pai Pai to spill his guts. That's about as much time as I can give you," Videl spoke.

Gohan was wrong. Things could get worse. Kami damn it…

"You do realize just what you're asking, right?" he questioned the dark-haired woman. "Not only do I have to find a deadly mercenary, but one that has nearly killed me twice. I can't exactly walk up to him and ask him kindly to turn himself in."

"I know it's not ideal," Videl replied, "but we don't exactly have a lot of choices here."

And wasn't that the truth? "I could really use your brain out there," the youth remarked. "I don't think I can take this guy on my own, not without him running me through again."

There was a pregnant pause as the two stared at each other, Gohan resigned and Videl troubled. They really had a problem on their hands here. "If only there was a way to make me invincible, right?" he attempted to joke.

Videl rolled her eyes as she looked at him, but then froze in mid-roll. "Gohan, you're a genius!"

Gohan blinked owlishly. "I am?"

The Queen ignored him as her excitement became palpable. "I can't believe I forgot about that river. That would help solve everything!" Videl proclaimed before looking at Gohan again eagerly. "You wouldn't know about this since this story is part of the culture in these lands. There's this river called the Styx that can grant anyone who baths in its waters invulnerability. If you can go there and swim around in the water, Tao Pai Pai won't be able to kill you!"

Well that sounded fantastical and very appealing actually. "Sounds great!" Gohan agreed with enthusiasm. However, there was a nagging thought in the back of his head, mainly that he had heard of this Styx river before. If he recalled right, Piccolo would talk about it, but usually it was in regards too…

"Uhh, Videl? Isn't the Styx the river the dead have to cross over?" he asked.

Videl nodded in response. "That's right," the dark-haired woman said.

"So that would mean…"

"The River Styx is in the Underworld, yes."

There was another moment of silence, though Gohan didn't let it last as long as the previous one. "You do realize that only dead people can get to it, right?" he pointed out, hoping the dark-haired woman would see the flaw in this plan.

"Not necessary," Videl replied. "There's a witch you can see that can lead you to its entrance."

Gohan suddenly fell under the impression that Videl knew more about this than she was letting on. She was very well versed with this subject. "What's this witch's name?" he asked suspiciously.

"Baba."

Oh…Oh Kami no. You've got to be kidding! "What were you doing with Baba?!" the young man exclaimed. "Don't you remember the last time we ran into her? She tried to kill us!"

"Well I had…" Videl trailed off before her eyes glazed over. "Oh, you're right. I'd forgotten about that. This might be tricky."

"That's a bit of an understatement."

"Well, if you've got something better then let me know because it's not like we have any other choice," Videl snapped. "The clock's ticking and not only do you have to find Baba and become the closest thing to Kami, but you also have to find Tao Pai Pai and bring him back here. So what's it going to be?"

Well, when it was put that way… "I guess I'll figure something out," Gohan murmured. "But that just leaves the issue of getting out of this cell," he then said, more to shield himself from anymore bad news. He couldn't quite take anymore at the moment. "Hopefully, you can just—"

"I can't let you out," Videl deadpanned.

"Oh, why not?" he whined. "I mean, you don't want to marry this guy, right? Or do you?"

"Of course not!" Videl looked positively enraged at the mere suggestion that she was looking forward to this arranged marriage thing. "But a queen can't just unlock your cell, not with her right here. I mean, I don't even have the key!"

Gohan frowned. "Wait, you just came here to berate me? You didn't intend on letting me out?"

The dark-haired woman stared at him incredulously. "And you thought that even if you got captured, I'd just bail you out?"

"Well…yeah."

"Kami damn it, Gohan."

So naturally it was at that moment the door on the upper floor was open, causing both youths to jump and put their attention squarely on the stairs. High-pitched footfalls were made, coupled with what sounded like huffs. Then, in a mess of frilly green and pink clothes, Erasa came pouring down the staircase, not looking the least bit pleased. "Damn it, Videl, how long are you going to stay down here?" she demanded heatedly. "Do you have any clue how many guards I had to flirt with to make sure no one interrupted you?"

"Erasa, you live for that sort of thing," Videl shot back unamused.

"Only if they're cute and princely," the blonde stressed. "I mean, we had an entire story dedicated to that very plot point."

The dark-haired woman rolled her eyes. "Right, how could I forget? Now tell me what you're doing down here? You should be keeping watch."

"Don't get sassy with me, Vi. I thought you were just going to put your man in his place and come right back up, not do a full interrogation. I mean, what could he possibly say that you'd want every single detail? It's not like he magically got his memory from a near-death experience and came just so you two could have a hot prison make-out session."

The moment the dark-haired youths looked anywhere but at the blonde told her everything she needed to know. "You can't be serious. You two already got serious with each other?" A high-pitched squeal filled the room as Erasa began to bounce where she stood. "You have to tell me everything, Vi! Is it as hot as I'm imagining it? Oh my Kami, this is _sooo_ going into my diary."

"It will _not_ if you know what's good for you," Videl snapped dangerously at Erasa, adding a glare for emphasis.

The blonde merely rolled her eyes. It was pretty clear that she wanted to keep this little debate going, but Gohan got the feeling that there was some other reason for Erasa being down here. So to prevent further arguing, the young man asked, "Why did you come down here, if you don't mind my asking?"

That made Erasa pause. "I came down here for something?" she repeated confused before realization dawned on her. "Oh right! I wanted to warn you that those Ribbon people are on their way."

That was not good news. "I need to get out of here before they show up," Gohan stressed, back on his feet and practically running into the prison bars. "They might order my execution the moment they get here."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," Erasa waved off. "At least not for today. Did you know that moron Sharpner just strolled right up to the castle today? I mean seriously, how dumb can you possibly get? He's going to be executed in a little while, which would be a great victory for mankind. Everyone's going to be basking in the glow from that victory that they won't want to ruin it by killing you as well."

"How…comforting…" Gohan replied uneasily.

"You know, I hate to say this to you, Erasa," Videl began, "but Sharpner's too stupid to die. Just when you thought you finally did it, he'll just pop right back up and annoy you even more."

The blonde blinked in confusion. "Even if we lop his head off?"

"His body will probably spend the next hour fumbling around until it could find his head and just put it right back on his shoulders."

"What about burning? That should solve that."

"And risk setting the entire city on fire as the idiot runs around as a screaming fireball?"

Erasa's face soured. "You take the fun out of my life, you know that, Vi?"

"Just being realistic."

"You know, I could take Sharpner with me," Gohan volunteered.

Videl shot him a look. "So he can what? Delay you? Not an option, Gohan."

"Actually, I had an idea and it could work, but I need Sharpner for it."

The two women stared at him. "Oh Kami, it's doomed from the start," Erasa said. "Need and Sharpner should not be next to each other unless it involves bashing his head in with a rock."

"Or burying his body," Videl added.

"Or using him as firewood for a bonfire."

"Or live bait for a boar stampede."

"Okay, I get it," Gohan interjected. "Not the best I idea, but there isn't a lot of choices here. Give him to me and I'll make sure you never see him again."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Erasa retorted.

"I'm with Erasa," Videl agreed. "But if you insist, fine. He's yours. Just make sure he doesn't screw any of this up." Then she changed subjects. "But now we need to get you out of here and it's not like you can just stroll down the halls either. You're going to need a disguise, not to mention the key to unlock your cell."

"So where is the key?"

The Queen shrugged. "Probably with the jailer or one of the guards. As you can see, I can't get it without raising a lot of questions."

There was a moment of silence before Erasa spoke up. "Well, actually…" At this one of her hands disappeared into the ruffles of her dress before reappearing, a key in hand. "I do have this. I figured you'd be too mad, Vi, to bother bringing it with you."

Videl and Gohan stared at the blonde before the dark-haired woman lit up. "Erasa, I love you, you know that?"

"Of course, I do. Now we just need to dress up your boy toy and we'll be on your way." A big smile then erupted on Erasa's face. "And I know just the way to do it."

Gohan felt a shiver run down his spine at that look. For some reason, he felt as if he wasn't going to be liking what was up the blonde princess' sleeve.

* * *

Videl's queenly garb can be found on megaminoeien's _Queen Bideru_ sketch. The hairstyle is different for obvious reasons.

To chameleon for Chapter 1: Thanks!

To Krimzon for Chapter 19: Well, Rebirth stands for something else too, but that hasn't been revealed yet. I'm glad you like MVS and my's AU universe here. It's definitely a lot more interesting writing it than your usual high schools story.

To Zerolink100: Well, assuming Gohan survived the stabbing, it probably would have taken a couple weeks to recover. That's what makes magic so great lol

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	22. Petting Zoo

Dende stared with unblinking eyes. He'd been like that for awhile now and it had gone from embarrassing to unnerving to annoying.

It had to be the dress. Of course it was the dress. Erasa and Videl had been adamant in getting Gohan into the damn thing once more and there was only so much he could do against two driven, determined women who typically got what they wanted. At least they didn't put that colorful powder stuff on his face—he believed the ladies called it makeup. Erasa had been considering that for much longer than he liked and it was a miracle he managed to force his way into the hall to prevent that travesty.

"See, what did I tell you?" Sharpner whined. "This dress is so totally not my color. Even Little Green here can tell that!"

Then again, perhaps what Dende was too busy staring at was the other man in drag. Not only had Gohan been fitted with a dress, so had Sharpner after they finally found him. For someone so loud and obnoxious, it was actually quite difficult to find the blond. Apparently the guards had tossed him into the deepest, darkest cell the castle had, mainly so they could forget him. Yet, Sharpner refused to be tossed aside and kept yammering for so long, they all had to cast a silencing spell to drown him out.

So once the blond had been freed and…appropriately dressed, Sharpner had spent the entire trip next to Dende, complaining about how his dress didn't match his eyes and whatever nonsense he was complaining about. Oddly enough, that sort of helped them as it made other people avoid them, not to mention kept them in character.

That didn't mean it wasn't any more grating.

"Dende, we need to get out of sight," Gohan told the green demon, a note of desperation in his voice. "And preferably in more appropriate clothes."

Dende finally lost his bewildered look and turned to acknowledge the dark-haired youth. "Shall I prepare some for Sharpner as well? I do have to say his current attire is suitable."

"Are you kidding?" Sharpner protested. "Orange is totally not my color! And this headdress? I'm dying from shame here!"

"Yeah, for our collective sanity, him too," Gohan answered with a sigh. He was beginning to have second thoughts with his plan. Make that third and fourth thoughts as well. Erasa was right, this was doomed from the start.

Currently, the three were standing outside of a hut on the outskirts of Dabara. The presence of guards was less here, mainly because they were more focused around the city walls. Thanks to some entrepreneurial merchants, they had established some tents and other collapsible dwellings outside the city gates. It was here they were meeting.

Standing to a side, Dende gestured to the entrance of the hut. "Please step in." Appreciatively, Gohan hurried in, Sharpner moodily following him. Once Dende entered after them, closing the crude wooden door behind him, he then said, "Now hold still. This will only take a moment."

Raising his hands up, an orange glow began to emanate from his palms. The next thing Gohan knew, gone was the dress and in its place was his old clothes, the ones he had left behind in the castle, the same for Sharpner. "I believe these will suffice," Dende spoke once he finished, the glow disappearing as he dropped his hands. "I wasn't sure what else to provide for you and figured your previous attire was suitable."

"That's perfectly okay," Gohan replied gratefully. Then a thought struck him. "Wait, you could've magically summoned clothes for us this entire time?"

"Yes," the green demon answered.

"Then couldn't you have given Sharpner a cloak back in the desert?"

That made the little demon pause. "It…slipped my mind?"

Well, couldn't argue with that.

"Hold on, I got the worst sunburn of my life because you forgot?!" Sharpner screamed. "Why you little runt! That's it! I was considering you as my latest sidekick, but nope, not after this stunt of yours. You can go find yourself another hero to follow."

"But I am not following you," Dende pointed out. He then pointed a finger at Gohan and said, "I only serve him."

The blonde stared at the demon. "So…that means…" he started, forcing his brain to think, which obvious was using substandard parts to do so. "You're the sidekick of a sidekick?"

Dende looked to Gohan. "Why is he calling me a sidekick?"

The dark-haired man shrugged his shoulders. "It's just something he does. You get used to it after awhile."

Despite neither one of them answering Sharpner's query, the blond seemed satisfied with his conclusion, crossing his arms over his chest as a haughty look appeared on his face. "Well, no wonder you're next to useless. I suppose I can forgive you this time, but mind you I am a demanding mentor who expects nothing but your best. No more mistakes and we'll get along just fine."

"I…thank you…" Dende said after a moment, clearly unsure how to respond to that.

"Before we get off track any further," Gohan then began, "there's somewhere we need to go. We need to get to the Witch's Forest, the sooner the better."

"That is doable," the green demon replied, "though it would be quicker on horseback." He paused for a moment. "If I am not mistaken, there is an old outpost a few hours from here. We can obtain the horses there and then proceed to the forest."

Gohan frowned. "Why not get the horses here?"

"Despite your capture, you are still a wanted man," Dende pointed out. "And if you were on horseback here, you would be easily spotted. It would be best to put some distance between us and Dabara before we take such a risk."

"That sounds reasonable."

"Uhh, guys?" Sharpner suddenly spoke up. "This is all very interesting, really, but why are you taking me? I don't see any reason I need to go to some stupid forest."

Gohan could feel a headache form with the next words he was about to utter. "That's because we need…a hero to come with us and you're the only one we know. You're our only hope."

The other two men stared at Gohan blankly. When it became evident that Sharpner of all people wasn't going to say anything, Dende leaned in and asked, "Are you serious? Do we really need Sharpner that much? I don't think it's necessary for—"

"So, you've finally admitted it," Sharpner suddenly interrupted him. "What I've know all along; what the readers have known all along. I'm…" The blond stopped as he choked up. Then he reached out and laid his hand on Gohan's shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Sidekick."

Huh, well, that wasn't so bad. The dark-haired youth had been expecting—

"Proud that you have finally called me that which was my birthright."

He had been expecting—

"I mean, until this moment it was like you were in denial about it. I can't tell you how frustrated it made me, but I knew you'd come around eventually. Everyone else has."

…he had been expecting—

"You hear that world! I'm the hero of this story! Me! No one else! You just got it from the guy listed as the main character—why I have no idea since he's a minor character, a plot device at best. I have been validated and no one—no one!—can take that away from me!"

Okay, this was sort of what Gohan had been expecting. He was just going to—

"Now! Before this scene finishes, let us be off!" Sharpner proclaimed loudly. "We've only got XX amount of chapters left and by golly we're going to make sure I get my happy ending! Now quit your lollygagging and get a move on!"

"I believe you've said the wrong thing, Sir," Dende whispered to Gohan as he stared at the blond.

Gohan merely nodded his agreement. With every passing word, every second, he felt as if he had made a big mistake.

* * *

Gohan was right, this was a big mistake. Calling Sharpner a hero wasn't the biggest mistake he had ever made, but it definitely was up there. Top ten easily, maybe top five. Regardless, he was dealing with the repercussions of that action.

Dear Kami was he dealing with those repercussions.

"The hero's tired," Sharpner whined loudly. "Why did we leave the horses behind? I mean, we got them just to leave them at the last possible moment? That's stupid! Sidekick, I swear, your travel agent sucks on this trip."

To be honest, Gohan wished they were still on horseback. Just as Dende promised, once they reached the outpost the little green demon had mentioned, they had been supplied with horses and food and all sorts of neat stuff they needed for their journey. The dark-haired youth admittedly was weirded out by all the demon people since they bore a striking resemblance to Piccolo. There had been big Piccolos, small Piccolos, young Piccolos, old Piccolos, and even fat Piccolos. Thankfully they had been enthusiastic with their welcome, so that had relaxed the young man.

And things had been going so well after that too. They made great timing heading west towards the Witch's Forest. In fact, what was easily a week's journey had taken a couple days of hard riding. It would've been sooner had Gohan and Sharpner had known how to ride a horse to begin with, which caused a whole host of problems there.

Needless to say, Sharpner had been complaining the whole way since.

Yet, the whining only got worse once they reached the forest. Right at the tree line the horses refused to go further, damn near bolting on them when any of the three urged the beasts forward. So they dismounted and tied the horses to a tree, which the animals seemed alright with, and then ventured on into the forest.

That brought them to now. It was unfortunate that Gohan didn't recall the forest all that well, mostly because the last couple of times he had been here he had been running for his life. It didn't help that the further they went in the more foreboding the trees became. It was almost as if they were being warned to not go any further.

Too bad Gohan couldn't listen to that wise warning.

As if to make matter's worse, a breeze actually blew by the trio, causing the leaves in the trees to rustle about. It also brought a very distinct odor that made all three of them wrinkle their faces in disgust.

"Oh Kami, what smells like crap?" Sharpner exclaimed, pinching his nose with his fingers. "I don't remember this place smelling like this!"

"It smells like we're near a latrine," Gohan agreed as he felt his eyes begin to water from the stench. Sheesh, this was becoming overpowering. If it got any worse, they were going to have to take a detour or something.

"Oh…Oh no…I can feel it. My nose. I can feel the hairs…the _hairs_ in my _nose_ are burning. They're _burning_ ," Sharpner whined, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling the collar up and over his mouth and nose. "This is worse than that time those freaking colored people tried to feed me vegetables."

"I do not know what Sharpner speaks of, but it must've been bad," Dende spoke up.

Thankfully, the wind died down, though it didn't remove the stench. Wearily, the three pressed forward, doing their best not to breathe too deeply. "There must be a swamp nearby," Gohan said as he looked about the area. There had been one right on the border of the forest the last time he had wandered in, but he didn't recall it smelling this bad. Now that he thought about it, he must've been grasping at straws for an explanation to this mysterious smell.

"Swamp, schmamp, ain't no way this is a swamp," Sharpner retorted. "I would know, I lived by one."

"Ah, so you are one of the swamp people?" Dende asked. "The ones that crawled out of the marshlands and made a nuisance of themselves for generations? You do share some of their features, if I am not mistaken, and I was beginning to wonder about your parentage, so this does make sense."

There was a heavy silence before the blond growled, "No…I am not a swamp person."

"Oh."

"Since when did you live by a swamp?" Gohan asked then. "I met you in that one village and I thought you lived there your entire life."

"Believe it or not, Sidekick, there was a time when we didn't know each other. I know, it's hard to comprehend."

"…right." The youth decided then and there not to push Sharpner any further. Chances were he was just making up an origin story for himself and was hoping to push it to anyone that was willing to hear it. It was best to not get him started.

Suddenly, Dende tugged at Gohan's sleeve, causing the young man to stop. "Gohan, Sir, I believe I know what's causing the smell."

Turning his head to the green demon, Gohan soon found his attention not on Dende, but on a dark shape through the trees. The longer he looked at it, the more it took on a brownish color. Whatever it was made of, it appeared to be piled together, as if someone kept dumping the stuff on top of it. A careful sniff of the air told him that the smell seemed to be emanating from the pile.

"That's one big pile of crap," Sharpner said.

And suddenly everything made sense.

So someone was dumping fecal matter here—lovely. "Let's keep moving," Gohan suggested. "The further we get away the better." To encourage this action, the young man took a step forward and promptly stopped when he felt himself step in…something. With a grimace on his face, Gohan just knew the odor wasn't going to be leaving them for some time now.

Looking down, Gohan was thankful not to find a small pile of poo, instead finding his foot on top of a piece of crumpled paper. Letting out a sigh, the young man moved his foot and knelt down to pick up the paper, unraveling the ball until it was flat, albeit wrinkly.

That was when he frowned. "Come one, come all," the youth read out loud, getting the attention of Sharpner and Dende. "For all of you animals lovers, here is your chance to play with your favorites. Come on down to…Baba's Petting Zoo?"

"A petting zoo?" Sharpner questioned suspiciously. "What is that old broad up to now?"

"You do not sound pleased by this," Dende remarked. "Why is that?"

Gohan was about to answer him when their blond companion launched into a tirade. "Because she's a wrinkly old broad that swindled me out of my emergency gold stash, that's why! She's just lucky that I wasn't feeling well that day, or I would've laid a whooping on her!" He paused before a determined look appeared on his face. "Sidekick, let's do it. She is evil and it is a hero's duty to vanquish that evil."

The dark-haired youth eyed the other man. "You just want to beat her up, don't you."

"You say that like they're two different things."

"That's because they…" Gohan stopped himself before he went any further. It was plainly clear to him that he was arguing with someone not worth the effort. It was better to roll with the lunacy of it all. "Let's just go see Baba."

"Now we're talking!"

* * *

Well, Baba had done some changes since Gohan had last been here. Though her candy-made house was still in one piece with the occasional bite mark, the area behind the house was a completely different matter.

The trees that used to be behind the house had been completely removed, leaving a large open field. In their place were wooden fences forming what were best described as animal pens. It also helped that there were animals present too, some of which were walking around and pulling up the remaining blades of grass in their pens with their teeth. Others were lying on the ground, their bellies moving up and down in a rhythmic manner, indicating they were sleeping. And still others appeared to be pacing around, as if they were trying to figure a way out.

And it was all completed with an open gate, a large sign proudly proclaiming **Baba's Petting Zoo**. So that flyer hadn't been messing around.

"That little witch has been busy," Sharpner commented after the trio stared at the zoo in astonishment.

"I believe we should tread carefully," Dende suddenly warned, his tone serious. "I sense an influx of magical energies here. They are twisted and sorrowful."

"Sounds just like that wrinkly broad," the blond jested, or so Gohan hoped he was. Knowing Sharpner, he was completely serious and that was not the wisest thing to say to a woman that could literally summon lightning bolts from the sky.

"Thank you, Dende," the dark-haired youth thanked. "Unfortunately, we need to meet with the one responsible for those energies of yours. I guess we need to knock on her door or—"

"Or ring the bell?" the little demon suggested.

"Bell? What bell?"

Dende then pointed to the open gate, where a bell hung off of one of the posts, a rope dangling from underneath. A sign next to the rope said, **Pull Hard.**

For some reason, Gohan had a bad feeling about this.

"I guess we need to ring the bell," Gohan then said before walking to the gate, Dende and Sharpner following him. Reaching the gate, the three stopped with Gohan standing the closest to the rope. Preparing himself for the worst, he steeled his nerves and reached out to the rope, grabbing it and giving it a hard yank. In response, the bell rang loud and clear. In fact, the chime was quite chipper the youth had to admit.

However, when he looked to the sign, the wording had changed. **Again**.

Frowning, Gohan did as instructed, ringing the bell again.

 **One more time.**

And again.

 **Harder.**

And again.

 **Harder.**

And again.

 **HARDER!**

And again.

 **You've done this before, haven't you?**

Gohan hesitated. He was being played, he just knew it. Damn it, why did he have to run into a magically-imbued sign? Nothing good ever came from them.

 **Why'd you stop? We were almost there!**

"C'mon, Sidekick, keep ringing it," Sharpner urged the dark-haired youth. "You can't be cramping up now, or is this the best you can do?" Without waiting for an answer, the blond pushed Gohan to a side as he grabbed the rope himself. "Here, let me show you how it's done. It's all in the technique."

Then, at a frantic pace, Sharpner began pulling on the rope over and over, causing the bell to ring wildly, completely unlike Gohan's attempts. The blond man didn't stop until he tired out, visibly breathing hard. "There, that's how you do it."

Looking to the sign, Gohan saw, **That was unsatisfying. Are you sure you know what you're doing? You should take tips from the other guy.**

Sharpner stared at the sign blankly before his face went red with anger. "Hey! Who are you to criticize my skills?! I'll have you know that women love me!"

 **Sure they do.**

"What would you know anyways?! You're just some sign with a bell! Ha! Take that!"

"Now if this isn't just sad," an old, creaky voice spoke. "Outwitted by a sign. I don't know whether to feel sad or laugh."

Gohan stiffened at the sound of the voice. While he had been looking for it, his given history with its owner was not a good one, especially after he'd been warned never to come back—something he wholeheartedly intended on doing up until a week ago. Swallowing deeply as he gathered his courage, the young man turned around and looked directly at the old, wrinkly crone, the woman floating in midair atop her crystal ball. Well, at least that hadn't changed.

Unfortunately, before Gohan could give a polite greeting, Sharpner had turned around and stared right at her. "What would you know about it?" he demanded heatedly. "Keep moving, lady, there's nothing to see here. The sign and I have some business to settle."

"I believe he is being serious," Dende remarked.

No kidding. Deciding to ignore the stumbling block that was Sharpner, Gohan said, "Hello, Baba. It's been awhile."

The witch turned her sights on to the dark-haired youth, looking blandly at him. "I would most certainly say so. Unfortunately for you, it hasn't been long enough."

And this was going downhill faster than he wished it. "We're not here to cause you any trouble," Gohan tried again. "We just need your help."

Simultaneously, Baba looked intrigued while Sharpner paused in his…whatever he was doing with the sign and turned to look at the youth incredulously. "You _wanted_ to come here?" the blond questioned in disbelief. "I thought this was just a pit stop so you could relieve yourself!"

The other three people there turned to look at the man with blank looks. "Disregarding that," Baba spoke up, obviously an attempt to move their conversation, the first good sign since they entered the forest, "what business do you have with me?"

"About a year ago, Princess Videl came to you seeking help—" Gohan started, only to be cut off.

"Princess?" the witch inquired. "I do not recall a princess coming here."

"Well, she said she did and that you helped her revive someone."

Baba seemed to seriously consider that before her eyes lit up with recognition. "Oh, I do seem to recall that incident. Oh yes, that girl. How is she doing these days?"

Gohan faintly wondered whether he should answer that, but figured it wouldn't hurt anything. "She's currently the Head of the Demon House."

"My, oh my, she had certainly climbed high in this world. Now what does she have to do with this?"

"Well, she told me I needed to talk to you about this Styx River," he explained.

To which Baba interrupted him again. "And why should I know about the River Styx?" she asked coyly.

"Because you're a…" Gohan trailed off as he realized being blunt may not be the best way to approach this. "Uhhh, because you're…very…knowledgeable?"

"And?"

"Wise?"

"And?"

"…pretty?"

"Dear, Kami, you suck at brown-nosing, Sidekick," Sharpner said.

"I don't know about that," Baba disagreed. "Things were starting to get good."

"Well, Sidekick, stop it. We are not here for you to kiss the wrinkly ass of a bag lady."

The witch narrowed her eyes at the blond. "You would do well to hold your tongue, you twit."

"Or what?" Sharpner challenged. "Are you going to swat me with your handbag? Ooooh, I'm sooooo scared!"

The old crone didn't respond to that, instead just staring at the foolish young man. Then, a violet aura glowed from her body, including the crystal ball she sat on. Bright and brighter her aura grew until the light was even shining out from her eyes. Suddenly, the sky began to darken as a stiff wind began rustling the leaves of the trees. "Change," she spoke in a deep, monstrous voice.

And then the violent aura fired from her, hitting Sharpner as he let out a high-pitched scream. The moment he was hit with the witch's spell, the blond went silent, his body disappearing within the light, which grew brighter and brighter until Gohan had to look away due to the burning sensation from his eyes.

Then a loud _boom!_ went off and the dark-haired youth was thrown off his feet, crashing to the ground as he let out a surprised cry. Quickly, he pushed himself back onto his feet and looked towards where he had last seen Sharpner and Baba.

He was quick to locate the witch, who still hovered in midair. Where Sharpner stood, a dust cloud was floating into the air, slowly dissipating. It took awhile, but when the dust settled, there was no Sharpner to be found. In fact, there weren't any ashes, or anything to indicate that he'd even been there. It was almost as if he had been obliterated with magic.

Well, at least if you didn't count the guinea pig.

Gohan blinked his eyes. Guinea pig? What was that doing here? Looking at the little critter, the dark-haired youth saw it turn its head this way and that, its little nose sniffing the air delicately. Oddly enough, the yellow-and-white furred guinea pig had long strands of blond hair, almost as if it were wearing a wig. Heck, it almost looked like Sharpner's hair the more he…

That was Sharpner, wasn't it?

"Sharpner?" Gohan called out, not sure what he was expecting to happen. At the sound of his voice, the guinea pig snapped its head towards him and began making shrill squeals.

Oh yeah, that was definitely Sharpner.

"And it seems I have a new attraction for my petting zoo," Baba remarked. "And I must say, this one is going in a very special place."

Gohan shot his eyes towards the zoo, taking in the sight of the animals. If what Baba said was true, then those weren't animals in there. They…they were people! Oh, dear Kami, the animals were people!

"I believe we are in mortal danger," Dende whispered in fright to him. The green demon was even trembling next to the youth. "We should leave this place lest we suffer the same fate. I know you needed Sharpner for something, but we won't be of any use to anyone if we too are animals."

"Well, actually I had wanted to use him as a bargaining chip with Baba," Gohan admitted. "I thought she'd do something like this to him, but after we had negotiated."

"Then I suggest you come up with a different bargaining chip."

That was when the dark-haired youth felt the old crone's eyes focus on him, stopping the two youths' conversation as a shiver to run up his spine. Reluctantly, he turned his attention to the witch, who was looking at him knowingly. "Now then, as you were," she ordered flippantly. "Unless you too wish to become a resident in my zoo, you better get back to brown-nosing. I'm waiting."

* * *

To Zerolink100: And what are you thinking of?

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	23. Sing at Your Own Peril

Gohan resisted the urge to claw out his own tongue and set it on fire. For the hour it took for him to convince Baba to aid him—i.e. suck up to her to the point even trees would die from root rot—he could feel a part of him die with each and every praise he lavished on the witch. He wouldn't have been surprised if his tongue had turned black from all the petty praise he said. Yet, it had worked.

Right now the witch was floating down a trail on a large crystal ball, leading the dark-haired youth and Dende to whatever it was the old crone wanted them to see. That was of course after they had put Guinea Sharpner in one of the pens, setting him up for life with food pellets, a bottle of water, and a running wheel. Last Gohan had seen of the blond-haired guinea pig, he was frantically running on the wheel as if it was his only way out.

"It's not much further," Baba suddenly called out to the two over her shoulder. "Just watch out for the tree roots."

Eyes dropping to the ground, Gohan found the earth devoid of any potential root. Confused, he looked back up at the witch. Was she just playing them? That was most likely since she got her kicks—

Sudden Gohan found his foot stuck when he tried to move it, which left the rest of him moving forward. The world in front of him came to a stop and then went up until all he saw was the ground rushing up to him. With a grunt, he landed face first in the dirt, lying there for a moment as he wondered what had happened.

"What did I tell you?" Baba snapped then. Raising his head, Gohan looked up to see the witch glaring at him. "I swear, that friend of yours is rubbing off on you."

"But I didn't see any roots," the youth protested.

"Then why did you trip?" she countered.

"Because of…" he trailed off as he jerked his head to look towards his foot. And what do you know, there was a thick root right in front of his foot, rising up into the air and creating a groove between it and the dirt. So obviously Gohan had shoved his foot into the hole as he stepped, which caused him to trip.

"Like I said, watch your step."

Wincing, Gohan pushed himself off the ground. There were more important things to do than argue about a mysteriously appearing tree root. He would just have to be—

Suddenly, something hit him front behind, shoving him back onto the ground. "Oww," he moaned as he once more lay with his face in the dirt. This just wasn't his day.

"Sorry," he then heard Dende apologize from on top of him. "I tripped on a rock."

The world was out to get him, wasn't it...

"Would you two quit playing around?" Baba reprimanded them. "I don't have all day to watch you two act like idiots. If I wanted to do that, I'd watch those fools in my petting zoo. Now get up, the both of you; we're almost there."

Dende immediately pushed down on Gohan so that he could stand, which kept the dark-haired young man down that much longer. When he felt the demon off of him, the youth picked himself up, absently brushing the dirt off of him; however, he was mindful of the ground as he began following Baba again.

True to the witch's word, they arrived at their destination soon. Though the area was thick with trees and foliage, they ended up approaching the bottom of a hill, a rocky wall raising up high into the air. It stood out in comparison to the vegetation. However, what drew all of their eyes was what looked like engravings in the wall. Symbols marked the surface, starting from the ground and trailing up, arcing at one point before leading back down towards the ground. Squinting his eyes, Gohan tried to read what they said and…had no clue what they said. That wasn't too surprising.

However, Dende seemed to know what it said, or at least had a clue that Gohan sure didn't. "Are you sure this is the place?" the green demon asked nervously, his eyes flickering from side to side, as if expecting some sort of attack.

"I am," Baba confirmed. "The Monkey Prince did request this location."

For a moment, Gohan wondered who that prince was before he realized it was him. He was going to have to work on getting used to that address at some point. "So this will take me…" he trailed off hesitantly.

A foreboding aura seemed to radiate from Baba as she leaned forward menacingly. "To the Underworld," she said gravely.

Gohan and Dende couldn't help but gulp. Well, she was right, this was where he wanted to come. So why was it he felt as if this was a mistake?

Almost as if reading his mind, the witch continued, "There are many who have sought this place out and turned away at its door. One does not simply walk into the Underworld."

That was very understandable, the youth mentally admitted. Why, you had to be—

"Or run. Running is a good way to get yourself killed down there," Baba added.

Okay, good tip—

"Or slide. There was this one idiot that thought he could use one of those snow sled things and go the entire way. Ended up sliding right into a bottomless pit. Last I heard he was still falling."

So there were bottomless pits there too. Gohan was sure that—

"Or strolling. I highly recommend that you don't do that either."

Seriously this was just getting out of—

"Or prowling. You wouldn't believe how ill-tempered dead souls are with prowlers."

Oh, come on now!

"Are you sure this is necessary, Sir?" Dende asked then, looking at the youth intently. "This is not a choice that should be taken lightly."

"He's right, you know," Baba agreed as she nodded sagely. "Wicked and strange things linger just beyond this doorway and you will no doubt confront them. Why, in fact, I knew a young man who thought he could—"

"Yes, I'm sure I have to do this," Gohan said quickly, cutting off the witch in mid-spiel. There was no telling what she would say, though no doubt it was something that did no bode well for him. The last thing he needed was to be talked about of this, even though his mind was starting to weigh his options. "This is what Videl said I needed to do and I trust her."

"Very well then," the old crone spoke. "Then you must pass the challenge to open the door. Only one of calm mind, harmonious sound, and eloquent style shall be allowed entry."

Gohan blinked his eyes. "What does that mean?"

Baba smiled none too pleasantly. "You must sing."

A cold wind blew by the youth. Sing? Him? He couldn't do that! Piccolo would always hit him when he tried! Then again, Piccolo hit him for everything, so perhaps that wasn't a true indication of any singing ability he possessed. It was a shame Videl didn't tell him about this…part…

The youth glanced to the old crone. "Videl sang, didn't she."

"Oh yes, she did," Baba said, nodding vigorously. "And I must say, she had an exquisite voice. I've never heard anything like it before or since. Even the animals were enchanted; in fact, that's where I got my idea for a zoo."

Oh, Gohan knew exactly what the witch was getting at. He vividly recalled the last time he heard Videl sing and how creepy it was having an entourage of woodland critters follow them for leagues. She must have been very desperate to use it though, considering that she rarely ever used it.

Well, if Videl was willing to swallow her pride for him, then Gohan could do no less. He would sing and it would be the best song he could think of. Unfortunately, that's where he ran into a slight obstacle, namely he didn't know that many songs. No way would he try one of Videl's since he was sure he didn't have the pipes for them. Hmm, what other songs did he know?

Now this was where living as a vagabond was working against him. Living a life of freedom and long walks did not expose one to much music, especially in company that didn't really care for it. One had to be in a village to hear it…and…hmmm, now that he thought about it, there was this one song he heard the village children sing. Perhaps that would work.

Closing his eyes, Gohan prepared himself. Going over the words in his head, he readied himself for his task. Then he opened his eyes and began to sing.

"I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves! Everybody's nerves! Everybody's nerves! I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves and thiiiiis is how it goooooooooes!"

He paused for a beat before he continued, "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves! Everybody's nerves! Everybody's nerves! I know a song…that gets on…everybody's…nerves…"

As he trailed off, Gohan couldn't help but notice that the Underworld entrance had yet to open. Yet that wasn't as troubling as Dende crouching on the ground, his hands on his ears as he whimpered pitifully. Baba just gaped at him, her mouth hanging wide open.

"What?"

"Please, Sir, please stop," the little green demon pleaded as he looked up to the youth. "My ears, they cannot take anymore."

Gohan's face flushed from embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I know I'm not that great of a singer."

"You're not kidding!" Baba exclaimed. "I haven't heard such obnoxious lyrics since I was part of the court! And those notes! They were all over the place! You were sharp when you were supposed to be flat and flat when you needed to hold the note. I hate to tell you this, but you're no singer."

"That's…fair…" the dark-haired youth admitted.

"I think I've heard cats with better pitch than you!"

Okay, that was hurtful, but he'd—

"I think my ears are bleeding," Dende moaned pitifully.

And that was a little too much honesty—

"Oh, Kami, I think it's stuck in my head!" Baba cried out. "It won't stop! It just won't stop!"

Okay, this was just getting out of hand!

"I'll try a different song then," Gohan proclaimed bravely, hoping that confidence would make a difference. This blinded him to the horror that appeared on the other two's faces and before they could protest, he began a new song. An oldie, but catchy.

"Follow the very brown road! Follow the very brown road! Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the very brown road!"

"Stop!" Baba and Dende cried out. "Stop, stop, stop!"

Gohan frowned. "Why are you stopping me? Don't I have to sing to open up the entrance?"

"It has to be good singing," Baba stressed. "And child, I've heard donkeys braying that have better musical chops than you."

Coincidentally, the sound of braying donkeys could be heard at that moment, which prompted the witch to gesture in the direction of her house. "See?!"

"Mistress Baba," Dende then spoke up. "Is there no other way to open the entrance?"

This caused the old crone to glance at Gohan, who was looking rather miffed. She didn't have to criticize him that much. After all, she was the one that told him to sing. "I…suppose there are other ways," she said slowly. "As long as it is musically-inclined, then it should meet the requirements."

"So perhaps he could use an instrument," the demon suggested.

"Yes!" the witch shouted before harshly coughing. Once she stopped, she spoke in a more controlled tone, "I mean, yes, that would be permissible."

Dende then took a deep breath. He closed his eyes for a moment before reopening them, his eyeballs glowing completely white. Holding one of his hands out in front of him, he chanted, "Tools of harmony, instruments of sound, appear!"

A loud _boom!_ went off before the three, a white cloud obscuring their view. It took several moments before the smoke disappeared and instruments of all shapes and sounds sat on the ground, waiting to be played. Blinking his eyes, Gohan stared at them all, unsure of what to do. He recognized some of them, such as the drums and a horn, but all the others he had no clue as to what they did.

And he was going to have to play them.

Oh boy.

"I present to you the instruments of the late-King Piccolo," Dende introduced grandly. "Only the most talented were allowed to play these before the King."

"And if they weren't?" Gohan asked.

"There fingers were chopped off and executed shortly after."

That caused the youth to gulp audibly. "Oh…no pressure then…"

"Go on, pick one up," Baba prodded then. "The sooner you do this, the sooner you get it over with."

Looking lost, Gohan turned his head from left to right, searching for something that looked as if it would be of use. There were so many of them, it was overwhelming his sense and…and…

What was that?

Amidst all of the instruments, one of them caught his eye. Unlike the silver, brass and wood bodies of many of the instruments, this one was green. Walking towards it, he knelt down and picked it up, holding the thin, rod-like instrument in his hand.

This caused Baba to raise an eyebrow. "A green piccolo?"

That caused the youth to jerk his head up. A piccolo? This must be a sign! Thank you, Mr. Piccolo, wherever you are!

* * *

A loud sneeze echoed throughout the cell.

Piccolo rubbed a finger beneath his nose, wiping away whatever nasal residue had blown out. That was strange, he didn't sneeze all that much. A wise saying once said that if you sneeze, someone was speaking ill of you. The demon hadn't put much stock into that considering some of the things he had done warranted a lot of people talking ill of him and he hadn't been rendered incapable of moving because of uncontrollable bouts of sneezing.

So that wasn't likely it. Perhaps it was just some random sneeze and he should think nothing of it.

Either that or Gohan was trying to sing again. Just the thought of that made shivers go down his spine. He had to avoid all manners of sound for three days to make sure his ears healed properly. That boy couldn't carry a tune to save his life.

Hopefully that wasn't the case. For everyone's sake.

* * *

The piccolo hadn't worked.

Neither had the other instruments, the names of which he had been told of by Dende. The violin had ended with ear-blistering screeching, which really had made the small demon's ears bleed. The trumpet came out as some sort of dying cow. He avoided the flute because it looked too much like the piccolo and he was still smarting from that failure. That didn't stop him from trying the clarinet and that one…didn't end that well either. Dende had to stuff magically-summoned cotton into his ears to stop further blood loss.

Staying away from the woodwinds, he tried the brass. The trombone had been too awkward for him to use, so he gave up very quickly with it. The tuba had startled him so much since it sounded like the bodily function Sharpner would laugh at and then wave towards the dark-haired youth so he would smell it. So yeah, the brass had been a disaster too.

So now here he was, banging on a drum and hoping against hope that this worked.

One glance to the entrance told him that no, no it wasn't working.

"How can you fail at drums?!" Baba screeched. "I mean, all you have to do is hit them! It's not that complex!"

Gohan stopped beating on the poor instrument and put it aside, next to the pile of other discarded instruments he had failed to play. Needless to say, that pile was growing. "I'm kinda running out of options here," he said lamely.

"I noticed," Baba shot back acidly. "If I had thought for a moment you were this incompetent, I wouldn't have bothered bringing you here."

Considering some of the insults the old crone had been flinging at him since he entered these woods, Gohan merely sighed. He'd been called worse things and he had reached the very bottom of his self-esteem to let them hurt him any more. Perhaps he should pick up the flute just to torment the little old woman a bit.

"Sir, if I may make a suggestion?" Dende inquired them. Warily, the youth turned his head to regard the little green demon.

What he saw was a thin, metal bar bent to form a triangle. The little piece dangled from Dende's raised hand by a string, the thing slowly twirling as it hung in midair. "This is a triangle," he informed the dark-haired youth. "All you have to do is tap it with this beater," which he presented a thin metal stick with his other hand, "and it will play."

"Sure, why not?" Gohan said before taking the proffered instrument. Feeling foolish, he held the triangle up and began tapping the metal with the beater, hearing a high-pitched sound ring out. Surprisingly it had a rather nice ring, one that the youth kept making, hitting the triangle over and over at a sedate pace.

So consumed by the sound, Gohan missed the markings on the rock wall slowly begin to glow. It was slow at first, beginning at the bottom of each symbol and working its way to the stop. Eventually, all of the engravings were glowing with a bright blue light. Soon after, a tremor began to shake the earth.

It was at this shaking that the dark-haired young man stopped his playing and looked around frantically, soon spotting strange, glowing markings. That was when, right before his eyes, a black void seemed to form, growing until a doorway stood within the edges of the engravings. Just staring into the void made the hairs on the back of Gohan's neck stand up. It was almost as if there were something wrong with this place, like it shouldn't exist.

What the heck had he gotten himself into?

"Finally," Baba breathed with a long, exasperated sigh. "Gentlemen, I present to you the entrance to Hell."

 _Huh?_ "Hell?" Gohan questioned. "I thought this was the way to the Underworld?" In his mind, he prayed that this was just the witch misspeaking. There was no way he wanted to go through his entire ordeal for the wrong door, only to have to do it all over again with the right one.

Baba stared at him blankly before she rolled her eyes. "They're the same thing, you twit. Hell, Underworld, Kami's outhouse—they're all different names for the same place."

The young man let out a sigh of relief. "So this is the Underworld' entrance."

"Yes, that's what I said."

"I just wanted to make sure. It would've really sucked if this was the wrong entrance."

The witch glared at him. "It's the right one," she growled

"Alright, good, good. Can you imagine what it would've been like to play all those instruments only for—"

"IT'S THE RIGHT ONE!"

Baba was breathing hard as she stared with rage at the dark-haired youth. Taking that as his sign that he should stop, Gohan straightened out posture, looking at the entrance. "Then it's best I be off," he said.

"I'm right behind you, Sir," Dende added.

"Uhh, no, you're not."

The two youths froze before turning to look at the witch. "Only the one who opened the door may pass through," she calmly spoke, a stark contrast to the irritated tone she had previously. "Though it goes without saying, only the Monkey Prince may walk through."

Well, that was kinda disappointing, Gohan wasn't going to lie. He had hoped he could bring someone along for support, be it literal or moral. Guess he was going to do it alone. Perhaps Dende was just as disappointed as he—

Dende's hand suddenly clasped the youth's shoulder. "I wish you the best of luck and await your return, Sir. Bye."

…yeah…yeah, that's what he thought.

"Thanks," he said weakly, offering a thin grin before he strode towards the entrance. With every step he took, it brought him closer to the doorway, which made his stomach turn from anxiety. This wasn't going to be easy; in fact, one could say arduous. With all the things he had endured over his life, this stood to be his greatest challenge ever. It was do or die, no time to look behind or change his mind. Fate was rushing at him…

…and so was the ground.

Landing in a heap, Gohan blinked his eyes disoriented for a moment, wondering why he was lying in the dirt yet again. Slowly looking to his feet, he saw another tree root, just sticking up out of the ground like no one's business.

"I told you to watch out for the roots!" Baba shouted at him.

This…this did not bode well.

* * *

To Zerolink100: That is a story for another time. And in this universe, it's probably something that got way out of hand and cannot be contained again lol

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	24. Into the Underworld

The thing about stairs is that eventually they come to an end. A staircase had presented itself the moment Gohan had passed through the entrance into this place. Seeing nothing wrong, the young man ventured down them.

Then out of nowhere they had just stopped.

Gohan's frightened screams had ended a long time ago. Right now he was slowly flipping head over feet in a dark void with no sight of light anywhere. There was no telling how long he had been falling, just that he had been doing it for what seemed like forever.

If only he had a clock that was small enough to fit into his pocket…assuming he had any pockets to put one in. Someone really needed to invent those things.

Stopping his flipping, Gohan stared in what he thought was down. It took him a moment, but if he wasn't mistaken, there was something far below. Squinting his eyes, the young man could only make out that it was some sort of hexagonal shape and it was growing bigger and bigger…and bigger…

Gohan found out a moment later that it was indeed a hexagon. He also found out it was made of shingles once his body slammed right into it. A loud shattering sound rang out as he crashed through it, pain exploding throughout his body. Gohan let out a pained cry, squeezing his eyes shut. When he opened them, he found he was surrounded by stone walls, the different-sized stones flying upward around him.

Surprisingly though, there wasn't any debris falling with him. Turning himself to look up, Gohan found he was falling down some sort of well. Huh, no wonder he had—

Pain erupted throughout his back as Gohan's falling came to a sudden stop. Arms and legs spread out, the young man laid there breathlessly, faintly wondering why he had come here. There was no point in asking how, he knew that; he just wanted to know why he thought it had been a good idea to.

"Ow," he spoke weakly before he rolled over onto a side, groaning as he did so. For some reason, he was thinking of magic and how this entire place reeked of it. He wasn't that well-versed with it, but he could feel the strangeness right to his bones, assuming they weren't broken of course.

Noticing the ground, it too was made of stone, though it was noticeably cracked. _I wonder how that happened,_ he mused sardonically before he began to push himself up. That was when he noticed the body imprint next to him, what Gohan assumed was what he had rolled out of. Oddly enough, the pain in his body was gone, though it was still sore. Getting to his feet, the young man made to check himself out to be sure he was still in one piece.

Then, as if to puzzle him further, off to his right was another body imprint, one that was nearly identical to the one next to him. Frowning, Gohan looked from each imprint to the other, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. Was there someone else here? Where were they? They had to be close by.

Looking up, the dark-haired youth found he was looking right at a wooden door. Strange place for a door to be if you asked him. The longer he stared at it, the more he sensed there was something beckoning and foreboding all at once about it. Yet, if Gohan was going to get some answers, he needed to find out what was on the other side of the door…alone…without a weapon…or a clean pair of pants.

A familiar foul stench told him he really needed those pants.

Cautiously, Gohan approached the door, slowly extending a trembling hand once he drew close to it. Wrapping his fingers around the doorknob, he began to pull—

"Oooooowwwww!" a high-pitched voice screamed, causing Gohan to jerk back with fright. "What's the big idea, jerk?!" the voice continued, their tone laced with rage.

The young man found himself blinking his eyes in bewilderment. His imagination must have been running wild at this point as he could've sworn he saw two angry eyes glaring at him from above the knob, and the keyhole beneath it seemed to have grown lips. In fact, the knob seemed to be a nose when taking everything at face value.

"Umm, sorry?" Gohan apologized, his voice coming off baffled by what was in front of him.

"Sorry? That's all you've got to say?" the face snapped at him. "You just grabbed my nose and twisted it. That hurt, ya know!"

Unconsciously, Gohan took a step back due to his uncomfortableness with the present situation. As it turned out, that had been a mistake as the door person instantly noticed it. "Where do you think you're going, huh? Get back over here! I'll show you want it's like to have someone nearly rip your nose off!"

It was then that the young man noticed something. That voice…it sounded familiar. Eyes squinting, he leaned forward before he hesitantly called out, "Erasa?"

Indeed, the more he looked at the door's face, the more it began to resemble the blonde girl—just with a far bigger nose than usual…not that he would ever say that. Erasa, however, didn't take to being called by her name all that well. "That's not my name!" she screeched, her voice nearly bursting the dark-haired youth's eardrums. "I don't know where you get off calling people by the wrong name, but so help me, I am going to make sure you learn once and for all that it is inappropriate and you will be punished severely!"

That was when the door took a deep breath, but in doing so a powerful wind suddenly began pulling on Gohan's body. Caught off guard, the young man found himself flung off his feet and sucked right into not-Erasa's keyhole-shaped mouth. Yelping in surprise, Gohan flung and arms and legs out wildly, something brown appearing before his eyes before he smashed face first into it.

For a moment, his body stayed that way, face-planting whatever it was he had crashed into. Then gravity seized him and dropped the rest of his body down onto it, his back landing hard on it. "Ow," Gohan moaned again, eyes squeezed shut as he tried to overcome the throbbing throughout his person. Faintly he wondered why he was suddenly landing on hard surfaces; it wasn't like there was some sort of bad karma out after him.

Opening his eyes, Gohan then found he was staring up into a dark canopy of leaves. Staring at it, the youth slowly worked his way up into a seated position, finding that he was sitting on a dirt path with trees and bushes lining the trail. He was facing one direction, so he could see the path disappear into some sort of darkness at the end. Glancing behind him, he saw the exact same thing.

Hmm, why was it he was getting a creepy feeling about this place?

* * *

 _"Princess!"_

 _Gohan came to a stop, a frown on his face. At his side was Videl, who turned with him to look behind them. Down the dirt path, a man was running up to them, coming to a stop before them. He leaned forward, hands pressed into his knees, and breathed long and hard, trying to catch his breath. "Princess," he gasped as he raised his sweat-covered face. "I've...finally found you..."_

 _"And why were you trying to find me?" the dark-haired girl asked sternly, crossing her arms in front of her bosom. "I don't like creeps following me."_

 _The man stuck an arm out, a scroll in his hand. "A message for you, your highness."_

 _To Gohan, all he saw was a rolled up parchment with some sort of seal on it. To Videl, her eyes widened as she zeroed in on the wax seal. Immediately, she snatched the scroll out of the messenger's hand and pealed off the seal._

 _Frowning, the young man questioned, "What's going on?"_

 _"It's from my father," Videl quickly explained, pausing long enough to present the seal to him. "That's his seal. I still have a bunch of them at my castle, so I would know it anywhere."_

 _"Why would he be writing to you?"_

 _The princess didn't answer as she stared at the parchment, reading what was on it. Slowly, her mouth gaped open. That only caused alarms to go off in Gohan's head. "What's wrong?" he pressed._

 _"My father wants to see me...in Dabara..." she spoke slowly, as if she wasn't sure what she was saying, or reading, was real. "He's become the new head of Demon House."_

* * *

"My, my, my, what a landing!"

Instantly, Gohan jumped where he sat, his daze fleeing as he jerked his head this way and that as he searched for the source of the voice. "Who was that?" he shouted, scrambling up onto his feet.

"Who was what?" the voice answered mockingly. "You're going to have to be a bit more specific."

"You! You…strange voice…person…"

There was a silence, then, "Me? Well, why don't I show myself then!"

As if things weren't strange enough, a large smile appeared right before Gohan's eyes. Eyes bulging, the dark-haired youth stared at it before the upper and lower sets of teeth began moving up or down. "Brings back sweet memories, don't it?"

"Umm, not really?" the young man sputtered out. "I…It…why is there only your teeth?"

"Because a smile is contagious, don't you know my little sidekick."

Gohan's eye twitched. _It couldn't be._

That was when a head faded into existence, surrounding the big grin. A striped body followed soon after, taking on the form of a cat, though the face had too many similarities to a human. He wanted to deny what he was seeing, but there was no way he could. He wished it wasn't possible, he really did.

"Now, now, don't frown, Sidekick," the distinctly Sharpner-like voice said, going along with the Sharpner-like face. "We're best buddies and buddies help each other out."

"I know I've probably said this before, but what are you?" Gohan asked. A moment later the youth realized he had said that out loud versus thinking it and he slapped a hand down over his mouth.

Fortunately, Sharpner-cat wasn't offended, that same wide smile perched on his face. "You have indeed, Sidekick! I am but a guide for you in this mad, mad place—but then you and I both are well at home because we're both mad. Though you seem less groggy this time. You haven't called me by that ridiculous name yet."

"What name was that?"

"I think it went along something like Sharpener, but I could be mistaken."

"Oh." So this thing wasn't Sharpner. What a relief. Gohan stared at the face. Why did the face look like that?

"You're probably wondering why my face does look like Sharpentine's," the cat questioned, flipping to hover on its back, its front paws grabbing onto its feet. It rocked back and force, continuing to sound amused. "And I could tell you that, but I don't really see the reason why."

"And that's because?"

"You've already asked it and I answered you then."

Gohan blinked owlishly. "I've been here…before?"

"Absolutely, Sidekick! Why do you think I keep calling you sSidekick?"

"Because you're Sharpner?"

The cat's face froze, just as its rocking ceased. "Oh, so we're doing this again."

Gohan shot his hands up, hoping to appear appeasing to this strange, strange cat—one more strange and this cat would be completely Sharpner. "No, not at all, cat, sir, person. Umm, I was just wondering where I needed to be going."

"Oh, why that's easy." The cat spun around, still hovering on its back but looking at the youth upside down. "Just follow the white rabbit."

 _White rabbit…_

"And where would I find that?" Gohan pressed.

"Find what?"

"The rabbit?"

"What rabbit?"

"The white rabbit."

"What about a white rabbit?"

"You just told me to find a white rabbit."

"Did I tell you that?"

"Yes!"

"Yes, what?"

"That you told me to find the white rabbit!"

"Oh, well then you better go find it then."

Gohan stared at the cat incredulously. After being so annoying—again, another Sharpner trait—the striped cat was pretending to not acknowledge the very conversation they had mere moments earlier. It was maddening—again, like Sharpner. "I don't know where to find it though."

"Ah, then why didn't you say so?" That was when the cat's body faded away, leaving only the head to fall to the ground, bouncing away from the disturbed youth until it came to a stop on its side, though looking right at the young man. "Just follow the path and you'll find the rabbit. I hear its heading for the Styx."

And then the cat's head vanished, leaving only its smile behind before it too disappeared. Staring at the spot for several moments, Gohan made a mental note to cut back on eating any mushrooms for the foreseeable future. Something in him told him that it would be best if he tried to find his way out of this place and he was more inclined to follow that sage advice. Despite that though, he began walking down the trail.

* * *

 _There was someone close._

 _Gohan's eyes darted from side to side. He knew he was being followed. He had sensed it the moment he had entered this forest. He would've been proud about that had today been any other day. However, considering he was a wanted man, this wasn't something to take for granted._

 _He picked up his pace. The sooner he got to the garrison, the better. Videl would catch up with him shortly; she had to distract a patrol of Demons not too long ago, so that was why he was on his own. Yet, he would've preferred her presence right then considering he knew he was being watched._

There! _A sound! Someone had stepped on a twig and snapped it in two. They were close by. Gohan picked up his pace, a hand going to the sword handle at his waist._

 _He just knew he was going to be ambushed. It wasn't a matter of if, but when. He'd be ready though; he had picked up on his sword practice since leaving Dabara and he felt the rust was beginning to fall of his skill.  
_

 _And then there he was.  
_

* * *

There was no telling how long he had been on this path, but Gohan felt the distinct feeling that he was walking around in circles.

It didn't help matters that he could actually see the path forming an actual circle.

He wasn't sure how he had ended up on this never ending trail, but he was pretty sure he couldn't get off of it. Perhaps if he kept walking around it, it would branch out and he could leave it.

For some reason it never occurred to him to try walking off of it.

In fact, Gohan was pretty sure he would've kept walking on the endless loop had something small, furry, and white not hopped onto the trail. Coming to a dead stop, the young man stared at the little rabbit, stunned and in awe as it sat there, its little nose wiggling.

Now, Gohan wasn't one to be captivated by woodland critters—in fact, for reasons he did not wish to divulge he found them creepy. In this case though, the urge to run up and pet the little bunny was utterly irresistible. The only thing that stopped him was that he was sure the rabbit would dropkick him if he tried to do so.

 _They were in another shop. Another boring shop, where Videl was rifling through clothes frantically. She had dismissed half the store as unwearable, and a quarter of it as "unsuitable for human life." That had promptly made the shopkeeper irritable and retreat to the front. Even now he was giving the little girl the stink eye._

 _Gohan really couldn't appreciate why Videl felt this way. He had only discovered he had a father not too long ago, so he didn't see why his princess was going through all the effort to find something she deemed worthy of seeing her own. Maybe it had something to do with being a king._

 _"Gohan, if you could kindly help me instead of sitting there like a toad on a log," Videl growled at him from her post at a shelve, "maybe I won't strangle you with one of these dresses."_

 _He shrugged. He didn't see anything wrong with what she was currently wearing. She was perfectly acceptable in, what she called, her peasant clothes. Yet, if it would help her..._

 _"How about that?" he asked as he pointed at something random hanging on the wall. He didn't really look at it, but the expression of pure rage that appeared on Videl's face quickly told him he had made a mistaken. Jerking his head around, he soon saw_ why, _the princess looked as if she would strike him down then and there._

 _Hanging from the wall was a familiar set of stalking, white body suit, and rabbit ears._

 _Yes, that's right, another bunny suit._

Suddenly, the rabbit slowly turned itself around and hopped right off the path, disappearing beneath a bush. Instantly, Gohan raced over to the bush and shoved the leaves aside, finding no bunny rabbit anywhere. Head jerking up, he then saw the critter hopping further up ahead, heading down a trail of green grass. Remembering the Sharpner cat's sage—if not crazy—advice, the youth bounded onto the grassy trail, giving chase to the fleeing rabbit.

While Gohan was trying to keep in mind that this place was not your average woods, he was once more confronted with how strange it was along with the bizarre actions of its inhabitants. For instance, he was a young, fit man chasing after a little furry rodent that could hop a pace at a time. Yet, no matter how fast he ran, how much ground he covered, he could never close the distance between him and his guide. Gohan was pretty sure he would've kept on running had something not snagged his foot and he found himself once again falling flat onto his face.

Dear Kami, why?

"Why Piroski-Dum, I believe we caught ourselves a dingle berry."

 _That voice._

"Yes, Caroni-Dee, I think you right," a second voice agreed. Slowly peeling his face off the grass, Gohan caught sight of two men in identical red overalls and yellow shirts. Though their outfits were the same, one of them was a giant of the man while the other looked like someone Sharpner would idolize and model himself after.

The youth was also pretty certain he had seen them before.

"Umm, hi?" Gohan said, hoping against hope that this was the correct thing to say.

"It speaks, Caroni-Dee!" Piroski-Dum exclaimed. "What we do with it?"

"Quite simple, Piroski-Dum," Caroni-Dee replied calmly. "We talk to it."

"That seem easy enough."

Directing their full attention on Gohan, the two men sauntered over to him, coming to a stop in front of him. "Hello there, dingle berry," Caroni-Dee greeted him. "Why is a lout like you in such a hurry?"

Gohan sighed before he slowly pushed himself up onto his feet, dusting himself off with his hands. "Sorry, but I was following a white rabbit. If you'll excuse me, I need to go catch it."

"Why you need to catch it?" Piroski-Dum asked.

"Because a cat told me to."

Both men stared at him before they looked to each other, then back. "Pardon?" the smaller of the two prodded for explanation.

"A met a cat that could talk and it told me to find a white rabbit," the young man found himself saying. "And I was following it when I tripped and fell."

"Do you get feeling dingle berry has concussion?" Piroski-Dum loudly whispered to his friend.

"Or he's mad," Caroni-Dee whispered back. "Which means he fits right in here!"

"Oh! He does, doesn't he!"

"And he was so good to tell us a story too! Which means we must tell him one in turn."

Oh…oh no. Gohan held his hands up, waving them to draw their attention as well as to deter them from their story-telling idea. "Please, you don't have to tell me anything. In fact—"

"Nonsense!" Caroni-Dee declared. "It's the propriety of things that we must return your kindness with our own. So sit back, lad, as we tell you the tale of two adventurers working under a harpy of a women and how they kidnapped a princess who murdered them all."

Gohan stared at the two, placing the words he had been told in his head. It all sounded familiar and it fact he was pretty sure he knew exactly what Caroni-Dee was referring to. That was why he said, "Scene 64."

Twin frowns appeared on the men's faces. "Pardon?" Piroski-Dum replied.

"Scene 64—from the last story. That's what you were going to tell me, right?"

This time the men looked to each other before the simultaneously reached a hand behind them and pulled out rolled up manuscripts, the word SCRIPT written on its front. "What the devil is this dingle berry talking about?" Caroni-Dee muttered as he began flipping through the pages.

"64…64…" Piroski-Dum muttered as well.

Glancing at the two distracted men, Gohan then began to slowly step around them, trying to move as silently as he could. When he found himself behind the two, he then turned around and began to hurry his way down the trail again.

Now where did that rabbit go?

* * *

Well, the rabbit didn't go this way.

It had been awhile since Gohan had seen the white rabbit and no matter how far he walked, the distance he traveled, he couldn't seem to find it. And on top of it all, that wasn't his only worry.

He was pretty certain he was lost at this point.

Not for the first time, Gohan wondered if he should have stayed on the original dirt path rather than taking this detour. What had he been thinking? Listening to a disappearing cat? Following a rabbit? What was next? Talking flowers?

Gohan stopped his walking. Eyes narrowing, his eyes darted from side to side suspiciously. All he saw were the trees yet again. More importantly there were no flowers.

"You seem to be having a jolly good time there."

This time Gohan's eyes shot to his right, staring down a tree. Above one of the branches was a too-familiar smile grinning at him. Slowly, the stripped Sharpner cat appeared, his eyes returning the young man's intense stare with a bemused look. "How goes the hunt for the white rabbit go?" he asked pleasantly.

"Well," Gohan began.

Only for the cat to interrupt, "Oh, I see no rabbit with you, so you must have lost it. That's too bad."

"I…guess?"

"I suppose you'd like a hint, yes?"

"Not really."

"Of course you do, of course you do. Now, if I was a rabbit, where would I go?"

It took everything in the dark-haired youth not to sigh in exasperation. "I don't know, where would they go?"

"Weeeell…" The cat rolled over onto its back, looking straight up to the canopy of leaves overhead. "It's too early for bed, but not late to go home. If I were a betting man, I'd say it's time for a drink."

"And what do white rabbits drink?"

"Liquor, beer, milk, or juice, it really depends on what you thirst for, Sidekick. Something with foam, something that burns, or even bubbles that float in the air. But here there isn't a drop to drink, so go to where there's plenty to drink."

With every word the cat spoke, it's body began to fade away, leaving only his eyes and smile, the eyes winking away and followed by the grin, leaving nothing in its place. This time Gohan did sigh before he began to walk again. That had been rather point—

"But I'd also watch out for that next step."

The warning came too late and the next thing Gohan knew, he was falling again, tumbling down a hill covered in bramble and thorns. "Yeeeow!" he cried out as his clothes were ripped and skin broken by the thrones. Over and over, he rolled and flipped until finally he came to a stop, laying on the ground in stinging pain.

"Why?" he asked pitifully.

As he laid there, wallowing in his pain, the sounds of the forest making a soft chatter in his ears, the young man wondered just how long he could lie there before he had to get up. The further he pushed, the more torment he suffered. Gohan was getting sick of this place. Stupid trails, stupid cats, stupid rabbits, stupid talking voice…

The youth's head perked up. _Talking voices?_

Focusing on his hearing, the inane sounds of the forest sounded more and more distinctly like voices. "The poor dear, he took quite a tumble. Do you think he's okay?"

"Maybe we should ask him?

"No, no we can't! If he sees us, he might want to, _gasp_ , pick us."

"Oh, he looks too nice for that. Surely it wouldn't hurt anything."

Rolling onto his side, Gohan looked around him, finding no one in sight. Sure, the grass seemed bigger than it had been, but that wasn't really anything out of the ordinary in this place. Still, he could've sworn he heard voices. "Hello?" he called out. "Is someone there?"

A hushed silence fell over the area. Eyes darting from side to side, Gohan slowly pushed himself up until he was back on his feet. With great caution…make that reluctance…he edged his way further there the absurdly tall grass.

"Oh good, he's alright."

Gohan spun around to look behind him, seeing nothing, which caused him to twist right back around. _Where are those voices coming from?!_ The young man paused then. Was…was he hearing voices? Did that mean he was going crazy?

"He's skittish little dear, isn't he?"

This time the dark-haired youth froze. If he wasn't mistaken, that time the voice came from somewhere above him. Slowly tilting his head up, he soon caught sight of various colorful flowers, each one with a face that was looking down at him. Most seemed nice and comforting, but there were a couple that were fearful and quivering at the sight of him.

"Was…was that you talking?" he asked, his voice a high-pitched whisper.

"It seems the dear has spotted us," a lily flower proclaimed to the others, though its eyes never stopped staring at the youth. For some reason, it reminded him of his mother. Then it said to him, "Why yes, we are talking."

"Oh," was all Gohan managed to answer with.

"Did a thorn prick your tongue?" a rose asked him then. "Surely you have more to say."

"Don't be rude," the lily reprimanded kindly. "This is probably the first time he's ever seen such remarkable beauty. I know it has been some time, so we've forgotten how fetching we can be."

"Speak for yourself," an iris replied. "Not everyone speaks to everything that moves like you do."

"That's right," a tulip agreed.

"Who cares?" something Gohan assumed was a wildflower, but wasn't sure if that was right chimed in. "We must introduce him to the entire grove."

"What's there to introduce?" the iris retorted. This one he didn't really know, but he thought of a lady in the Monkey Court. If he recalled right, she was involved with the Lord Vegeta. "If he knows his flowers, then he will know all of us without needing to be introduced." The flower then turned its attention to Gohan. "You do know your flowers, correct?"

To be honest, Gohan knew his basics and that was about it. Most of his—how the upper class would call it herbaculture—was limited to which ones could be eaten, used as medicine, or could kill you on the spot. Anything that was used in arrangements or just to look pretty flew over his head. Still, considering these flowers were looming over his head, not to mention bigger than him, he felt it was in his best interest to get on their good side. "Yes, ma'am," he mumbled.

"See? So he knows us on sight!" the iris declared.

"But does he know Venus?" the rose interjected.

"Oh yes, he must simply meet Venus," the lily agreed heartily.

"Umm, who's Venus?" Gohan ventured, turning his head to look from flower to flower.

"Oh, Venus is such a sweet dear," the lily explained kindly. "Just like you. You have to meet. Now, if you just follow the path in front of you, you'll walk right up to her."

"Uhh, okay?" Hesitantly, the young man began to do as he was told, walking down the dirt path through the grove of flowers. Watching them, he saw their blooms follow him as he moved by. He wasn't sure who this Venus flower was—assuming it was a flower that is—but hopefully it might point him in the direction he needed to go.

It was then that the flowers thinned out, leaving only tall blades of grass surrounding him. That was until he came to a turn on the path, the turn caused by a rather unique looking flower. It was mostly green from what he could see, though its bloom did seem to tilt towards him, revealing a red inside. There seemed to be some long extensions lining the bloom. If Gohan wasn't mistaken, it sort of looked like a mouth, those extension appearing more like teeth and the red the inside of a—

A deep growl came from the flower then and Gohan stared in horror as the flower drop down towards him.

 _Oh dear Kami! s_ creamed inside the youth's head as he dove to a side, narrowly dodging the lunging flower. The ground crumbled as it was bit into. Though there were words flying around inside his head, Gohan cried out in fear as he scrambled as far away from the Venus flower as he could.

That was when he heard a hissing sound—several in fact. Stopping, the dark-haired young man slowly tilted his head up and gaped as he saw several more of the Venus man-eaters, each one turning its deadly bloom to stare right down on him. Oh Lord, how had he gotten here?

Though he doubted it would do anything, Gohan was tempted to try talking with the many Venus plants, but he felt all that would do was make them attack him sooner. Maybe if he stayed in one place, they wouldn't find him and that would…that would…

His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. Locating it, the youth was surprised to see the white rabbit of all things further down the trail. It was looking at him, its nose wiggling oblivious to the carnivores hovering over them. Then it turned away and began hopping further down the path.

Well, if that wasn't an exit strategy if he ever saw one.

Instantly, Gohan was on his feet, running as fast as he could. He never looked back, not that he had to, since he could feel the earth shake beneath his feet with every step he took. Behind him, the Venus flowers were descending down, slamming down hard on the ground as they tried to eat him whole. Desperate whines escaped the young man's mouth as he pumped his legs and arms harder to avoid becoming dinner, chasing down the rabbit.

Following the winding trail, up ahead the dark-haired youth spotted some sort of building. If there was ever something so beautiful, Gohan wasn't sure what it was, but it probably wasn't surrounded by man-eating plants. Hurrying as fast as he could, he closed in on it, soon seeing how white it was. That made it a little hard to see the white rabbit hop up a few steps before disappearing within the place.

And then Gohan was at the steps, leaping up them two at a time before diving through the entrance. He landed hard on a white stone floor, knocking the wind out of him, which launched him into a coughing fit. Fatigue set in as he tried to recover his lost breath, but in all earnest he couldn't have cared less. He was safe for the moment and that was all he cared about.

* * *

 _"Come this way."_

 _The voice beckoned him. Considering how warm and dazed he felt, that as one thing the youth could focus on. There was a white rabbit up ahead, which would hop away, stopping to look at him every so often before hopping away._

 _For some reason, he wanted to catch it._

 _"That's right, just keep coming this way. We're almost there."_

 _He was tempted to ask where they were going, but he couldn't must the energy. In all honesty, it was taking all he had to keep up with the rabbit. Had it not been for the rabbit, he would've been quite content with just floating wherever the wind pushed him. Funny, he couldn't feel any wind..._

 _Before he knew it, the rabbit had led him into a strange building of marble, ancient columns lining the walls. The rabbit made its way to some sort of entrances, which the young man headed to._

* * *

Taking his time, the young man rested until he felt he could muster the energy to look at his surroundings. The entire place was of some sort of architecture he was unfamiliar with. White stone had been used to build this place and whoever had done so had a fetish for columns. Columns lined the walls at even intervals, holding up the sloped ceiling. There were lit torches as well, each one placed in every other gap between the columns.

That all changed when Gohan caught sight of the far wall of the building, or lack thereof. Pushing himself onto his feet, the youth slowly approached the missing wall, coming to a stop next to a column as he found a staircase that descended down the side of a tall hill. The dirt itself was of a dark brown, the likes of which he hadn't seen before. In fact, the bright light of the flower field and even the woods had dimmed, leaving a foreboding atmosphere in its wake. In fact, the gloom itself seemed to come right form an enormous river that flowed at the bottom of the hill.

"What is this place?" he questioned breathlessly as he placed a hand against the column next to him. Eyes following the length of the river, he couldn't make heads or tails of it before he began looking around him. It was then that he found a sign engraved into the very stone of the column he leaned against.

RIVER STYX.

Well, it seemed Gohan had finally found what he was looking for. Too bad he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

* * *

To Zerolink100: Cool action montages. You can't have the hero not prep for battle without a cool action montage.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	25. Floating Along the River Styx

The bright colors outside of the temple were a distant memory. Dull, ugly colors ruled here albeit fittingly. The murky depths of the River Styx made it impossible to see beneath its surface much less the bottom. There was no telling what lived in its currents assuming anything did. Gohan knew for certain he wasn't going to plunge right in to find out.

Which was why he was standing on a rickety dock, bathed in the glow of a light that hung over his head from a post. The post was made of iron with some sort of metal arm extending out from its top. There was something that looked like a cage at the end of the arm and it was here the light was coming from. The youth hadn't seen a light fixture like this before, but then he was in a magical realm. It was most likely magic that created this unwavering, yet dim light.

The sounds of small waves flowing by filled the youth's ears. He could see the small bumps of water rising above the river's surface before crashing down back into it. The sight reached out for as far as he could see, a murky, mysterious fog blocking out the horizon on the other side, assuming there was one. The dark-haired young man sensed something…dangerous over there and he sure didn't want to find out what that was.

Yet, this is what he came for right? Allegedly, these waters would make him invincible so that he could take on Tao Pai Pai. But there was something in him that was screaming not to do it.

Before he could convince his warring mind that he indeed needed to dive in, a new sound caught his ears. Head quickly turning to his left, Gohan saw a small, thin boat drifting towards the dock. There was also a person standing up in the boat, a long thin stick in their hands, which they were using to paddle towards him. It was this paddle that he was hearing as it stirred the waters.

There was a dark cloak that masked the identity of the boatman. Gohan could only say for certain that it was a tall, thin person, and that was about it. A hood covered the person's head, leaving only shadow to darken their face to the point of being invisible.

Soon the boat pulled up next to the dock and came to a stop. The ferryman slowly tilted their head to a side, glancing to the youth. In turn, Gohan stared back, the two's gazes never leaving each other for what seemed like eons.

Eventually, the ferryman raised a hand up, and in a guttural tone, said, "Payment."

That caused the young man to blink his eyes owlishly. Payment? What payment? No one ever mentioned anything about paying anyone! Here he was, at Death's Loading Dock, and he was being ordered to pay a boat fare. What kind of place was this?!

Still, Gohan didn't want to appear too ignorant lest he offend this boatman. Besides, the voice in his head that was strictly telling him not to go for a swim was gently nudging him to get in the boat. So he began patting down his clothes and body in a poor attempt to appear as if he were looking for something to pay with. Maybe if he at least pretended like he wanted to go, he wouldn't offend this guy. "I'm sure I have some money here...somewhere," he spoke nervously right before he felt something in his pants. Frowning, the youth patted the spot and was sure there was something there.

Looking down, he pushed a hand into his pocket and felt some sort of thin piece of paper. Pulling it out, he discovered it was an envelope. Flipping it from front to back, he discovered writing on the front.

 ** _Should you make it to the River Styx, here is your fare. You don't want to ferryman to burn your eyes out of your skull_**

 ** _-Baba_**

Gohan stared at the note bewilderingly. It took him a moment to gather his wit and open the envelop, finding a couple of coins with in it. Since when had Baba placed this on his person? He honestly couldn't recall…

 _"Watch where you're going!" Baba reprimanded, causing Gohan to flinch back._

 _"I'm sorry," the youth quickly apologized. After seeing Sharpner's fate, he had no desire to share it, even if it meant jumping, crying, and stroking the old crone's ego. The woods the witch had led him and Dende wasn't the easiest place to move around, so bumping into someone or something wasn't so strange._

 _Of course, the last person you wanted to run into was an irate witch with a tendency to turn people into worthless pets._

 _However, unknowns to him, the witch had slipped something into his pants pocket. Due to his being startled, he never realized its presence…_

Slowly the memory faded away, Gohan's glazed-over eyes sharpening. Huh, that had been a convenient flashback. The young man was pretty sure such a scene hadn't occurred in an earlier chapter and suspected someone was trying to shoehorn in an untold scene that may or may not have happened off-screen.

He was going to have to steal someone's script for confirmation.

"Payment," the ferryman demanded again, causing the dark-haired youth to jolt where he stood.

"Ah, yes, yes, here's my payment," Gohan said quickly, pulling out the coins and placing them in the ferryman's extended hand. Fingers wrapped around the offering and the boatman dropped their hand to grab onto their pole once more. Seeing as how his coins hadn't been rejected, the young man felt it was okay for him to step into the boat, which he did. The boat rocked in the waters as he stepped in, Gohan spotting seating in the watercraft. Thinking it would best, he took a seat, facing the back of the ferryman.

* * *

The ride was long and time meant nothing. The only sound of company Gohan had was the waves of water that splashed against the sides of the boat.

The ferryman had been poor company. The youth tried to engage him in what he thought was civil conversation. The ferryman…well…said, "Talking costs extra."

That shut Gohan up rather quickly.

With eyes dulled over from boredom, the young man just stared out in front of him, neither seeing the dark grey fog in front of them nor the back of the ferryman. To be honest, there wasn't much to look at around here. The banks were covered in ugly-looking vegetation that was just as grey if not greyer than the fog. The water had the color of sludge, though thankfully none of its consistency. Otherwise this boat ride would've taken much longer. It was a stark difference from the colorful and insane world he had encountered when he first arrived. Part of him was beginning to miss it.

There were a few times Gohan dozed off. He wasn't sure if he actually slept or if all the times he had snapped his heavy eyelids opened were just mere seconds after they closed. Regardless, nothing change, so there was no way to determine how far they gotten or how long it had been since his boarding. A couple times he could've sworn he saw a white rabbit appear on the banks, but rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things would make the rabbit disappear as if it had never been there.

Then, as if his eyes were playing tricks on him, a small island appeared at the horizon. It started as a small black dot, but slowly grew bigger. The closer they came to it, the more it seemed to rise high above their heads. Something created light at its top as a light glow emanated from it.

The moment Gohan realized he wasn't just seeing things, he immediately straightened up in his seat. Finally, he was getting somewhere.

As they neared the island, it soon became apparent that it was more of a giant rock that sat in these waters. Moss grew on its sides, though there was a good foot right at the waterline that revealed naked stone. The constant waves had cleaned off anything and everything that could've grown on it. Its sides were rounded, though from the looks of it, there were more angular surfaces towards its top.

Fortunately, it didn't seem like Gohan would have to climb his way up immediately. He wasn't that good of a rock climber to be honest and he didn't want to attempt here. He noticed a dock extended out from the island, a lone lamp hanging from a pole giving off any light. That seemed to be where the boatman was taking them.

The ferryman pulled his rickety boat up to the wooden dock. "End," he breathed out lowly before turning his head around. Shadows still covered his face because of his hood. "Get out."

Gohan immediately shot up onto his feet. "Umm, thanks for the ride?" he said uncertainly before he stepped onto the dock. The wood beneath his feet creaked, but held steady, much to his relief. Fulling standing on the dock, the young man immediately spotted a stone staircase that traveled up the face of the rock island, veering off to the right the higher it went.

"So I just go up the stairs?" he asked before turning around to look to the ferryman. To his surprise, the ferryman had pushed off the dock with his pole, his boat floating out into the river. "Hey! Where are you going?!"

The boat stopped completely. The ferryman turned his head to the youth. "Payment," he spoke raspy.

Once more, Gohan found himself patting his pants, only he didn't find a coin in his pocket. "Umm, I don't seem to have anything," he spoke softly.

"Then get a job, ya bum."

Gohan's mouth dropped. He had no idea how to respond to that comment. The voice had been so…well, normal sounding when compared to the deathly groan the boatman had spoken with previously. Helplessly, he watched the ferryman pull away, disappearing into the mists around them.

"But…how am I going to get home?"

There was no answer. Being alone as he was, Gohan really didn't expect an answer to his helpless question. But then a voice, sounding as if it were a far way away reached his ears.

"…get…a…job…"

Slowly, Gohan backed away from the river towards the staircase. It seemed the only way for him to go was forward. He'd have to worry about how he would leave this place later, assuming there was such a way. It wasn't the first time he wondered why he came to this strange place.

Turning around, Gohan looked up at the staircase. It was much like the one at the half-finished temple he had been at prior to the ferry ride. Taking a deep breath, he released it before mounting the stairs.

Step after step he climbed, following the staircase up. It was alright at first. The youth expected he'd be at the top in no time. But then his legs became tired, then sore. Soon they were burning from the constant exertion he made as he climbed each step.

Soon, Gohan was covered in sweat. He was thirsty and panted loudly. It was around then that the stairs suddenly went very steep, nearly vertical. In order to keep going up, Gohan practically laid on the steps and grabbed onto the steps with his hands.

Eventually climbing gave way into dragging. Every step seemed to have a sharp edge and each one punched into Gohan's stomach, dragging down the full length of his torso. Dear Kami! How far did this staircase go?!

Then he made a rather dumb decision. He looked down. While he had expected to find the water far down below him. Instead he found the dock right beneath his feet.

Jerking his head up, he found the same right curve he had noticed the moment he had set foot on the dock. "No…" he whispered, his eyes on the verge of tears. He hadn't climbed all of those steps only to never had actually left the wooden pier. It…it wasn't fair.

"You know, you're never going to reach the top lying there."

And then there was this guy. Reluctantly, Gohan turned his head to regard the Sharpner Cat lounging to his left and up a couple of steps. His smile was just as creepy and obnoxious as ever. "C'mon, buddy, I believe in you," he encouraged.

"But I'm nowhere near the top," Gohan replied, nearly blubbering.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"Just look—" Gohan started as he jerked his hand off the staircase to gesture below him. However, when he looked down, he found the dock was nowhere to be seen. Instead, it was a very, _very_ long way down, almost a speck in his eyes.

"Eep!" he squeaked as he immediately grabbed onto the staircase. What was going on here? First he was at his figurative staring line, then he was nowhere near it. In fact, where the hell was he?! Nothing was making sense!

"Now don't you feel silly?" Sharpner Cat laughed. "C'mon, don't dilly dally, the white rabbit is just ahead."

The dark-haired youth's head perked up as he returned his attention to the cat. "Really?"

"Really what?"

"What you just said."

"What did I say?"

"You know, that the white rabbit is up ahead."

"It is?"

"That's what you just told me!"

"I did?"

"Yes!"

"Funny, I don't remember saying that, but you're not going to get anywhere laying on your tummy like that."

A migraine was forming in Gohan's head. He should've known better than to talk to this deranged cat. Its only purpose seemed to be to annoy him, much like his human self. "You know, you could help me," he muttered under his breath.

The Sharpner Cat heard him though. "I guess I could do that. If you would just climb up a couple steps more, I'll give you a helping hand."

With a resigned sigh, Gohan did as he was asked, hauling himself up one step, then two. However, there wasn't a third step. In fact, what was beyond the second step was a flat plateau. Gohan blinked his eyes for a moment before he quickly scrambled onto it lest he blink one too many times and it vanished. Huffing and puffing as he laid on cool stone tiles, Gohan thanked all the deities he could for this moment's respite.

"Thanks," he managed to wheeze out after awhile, turning his head back to the staircase. "I don't think I could've…"

He trailed off only because he saw the last vestiges of the Sharper Cat's smile slowly fade away. Oh, so that's how this was going to be. Dropping his head onto the tiles, Gohan closed his eyes, allowing himself a moment's rest.

Then, for whatever reason, the urge to get up assaulted him. Eyes snapping open, Gohan found he was standing on his feet—how he didn't know, but he was pretty sure his body had done it. It was then he realized he wasn't alone on this plateau.

Off to his right was a throne made of stone. On either side of it were two torches that burned with bright fire. Eyes darting from side to side, the youth realized he was on top of the rock island. These torches must have been the sources of light he had seen at its top.

Behind the throne were columns like the ones at the temple. They formed a semi-circle with a stone slab lying on top of them all. That was pretty much it for decoration.

However, there was someone lounging in the throne. At first the figure was a blur of darkness, so Gohan couldn't make out who they were. For some reason he narrowed his eyes into a squint, which somehow allowed him to see the person more clearly. Unconsciously, he took a step towards the stone chair, and then another. Soon, the light from the torches removed all darkness and Gohan's eyes widened.

"Mr. Piccolo?"

Indeed, the green-skinned man sat in the chair, his arms on the armrests and a bored look in his eyes. "You sure took your time getting here," he remarked boredly.

Slowly, Gohan walked towards him, stopping a short distance away. "What are you doing here?" he asked breathlessly.

Amusement danced over Piccolo's face. "I think you're confusing me for someone else," he said.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"I'm not the man you know as Piccolo."

That left Gohan flabbergasted. "Then who are you?"

"I'm the one who rules this wonderful land you've traveled through. I've been watching you since you arrived and I must say, you are entertaining."

This was becoming too much. Between the flowers and white rabbits and Sharpner Cats, Gohan had just about reached his limit on the absurdity of this place. Why couldn't someone just answer him without going into riddles? He could stomach some, but this was just too much.

That was the only explanation for why he behaved the way he did next. "Can you just give me a straight answer?" he demanded. "I've come a long way and through a whole lot of stuff and I'm sick and tired of being the only one in the dark."

The mirth never left Not-Piccolo's face. "I can if I choose to."

Gohan scowled. "Tell me who you are."

"That's not a question."

The youth's eye twitched. "Who are you?" he asked through gritted teeth.

Not-Piccolo smirked. "I am the Ruler of the Underworld, the place where all souls come to once their mortal coils have been spent."

Immediately, Gohan straightened out his posture. Oh Lord, he had not just been rude to the man that had control of his afterlife. No, no, no! His anger drained out of him, only to be replaced with fear. He needed to tread carefully now so as not to upset this rather important person.

"Oh," he spoke after a long moment. "Umm, nice to meet you…Sir." He swallowed deeply. "Umm, why do you look like Mr. Piccolo?"

Not-Piccolo shrugged his shoulders. "I can take any form I please. Since I knew you were coming, I thought I'd take a form you'd be more comfortable with."

 _Comfortable?_ Gohan frowned at that. "What do you normally look like?"

"To be honest, it isn't a nice-looking form. Most people that have seen me have their skin melt off their bones, heads explode, or they go insane."

"That bad, huh?"

Not-Piccolo scowled at him. "You dare insult my true body?"

Gohan's eyes widened. "Oh, no, no, no! I was just commenting on your…uh, description. I'd like to see what you look like if that's okay with you."

Amusement returned to the green man's face. "Are you sure about that?"

"Absolutely. I'd be honored even."

"Absolutely, huh? You know, if you want to back out now, I'll let you."

A part of the dark-haired young man felt he should've taken this offer. To be honest, he didn't want to see what could drive a person insane by merely looking at it. Yet, there was a part of him that was dying to know. Every second his curiosity was getting the better of him. "Please, I'd like to see it."

"Well, if you insist."

Suddenly, Piccolo's form was gone. Gohan found himself tilting his head back to look at something so horrific, so disgusting, so monstrous it was beyond those very words. They didn't even really describe it well either. Nightmares couldn't even compare to its hideousness.

So he screamed.

Over and over.

"Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh!"

And then the Ruler of the Underworld transformed back into Piccolo. "I warned you," he said in an I-told-you-so tone.

"Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh!"

"I know, it's terrible. It's impressive you haven't ripped your own skin off."

"Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh!"

Not-Piccolo stared at him. "Uhh, are you going to be at this for long? There are other things for us to discuss."

"Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh!"

Now he was looking annoyed. "You can stop now."

"Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh!"

"If you don't stop, I'll show you something even more terrifying," he warned.

"Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh!"

"So be it. Have it your way."

And then the Ruler of the Underworld changed his form yet again. True to his word, he had become something that made his real form pale in comparison to the horror this one brought.

"Hey, Sidekick," Sharpner said.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

* * *

To Zerolink100: There's usually a price that comes with going to the underworld and it's never a good one. For most people, they never get to leave; for others, they usually end up losing something precious to them.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	26. The Ruler of the Underworld

Yesterday marked the ten year anniversary of my first posting of a story. It'd pretty hard to believe after all this time, I'm still enjoying to write stories and furthermore publish them on this site. I never thought I'd do more than one honestly, but here I am 30 plus stories later. I'd like to thank everyone who's encouraged me over the years because without them, I wouldn't have continued as I have. I'd also like to thank each and every reviewer because your feedback as been tremendous. I don't know if I'll keep doing this for another ten years, but it's worth a try.

Thank you and enjoy.

* * *

It had taken some—make that a _really_ long time—for Gohan to recover from…that. Many times he had calmed down, only to have a stray thought of that which shall not be named, and once again begin screaming. Not-Piccolo had taken to reading a book through the many screaming fits. It was not a proud moment for Gohan.

"Are you done?" Not-Piccolo asked. It was somewhere between the sixth and ninth time he had asked that. Like the others, he didn't seem bothered by what was sure to come.

"Yes, I'm done," Gohan said weakly. Somehow he had not lost his voice despite the harshness of his screams. There was a slight raspy quality to it, but that could be ignored, unlike—

"Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh—"

"Alright, that's enough of that." Not-Piccolo made a gesture and suddenly Gohan found he was unable to scream. That didn't stop him from keeping his mouth wide open, his neck flexing over and over as he continued to attempt to scream.

"I swear, if I have to scrub your memory away, I will," Not-Piccolo growled. Apparently his patience had finally been used up. "Now, I'm assuming you came here for a reason."

At this, Gohan nodded.

"If I give you back your voice, will you talk like a normal person?"

Again, he nodded.

Not-Piccolo didn't do a thing. Gohan, on the other hand, became well-aware of his own panting breaths. He coughed to clear his throat, wincing from how raw it felt. However, when he spoke, there was no sign of hoarseness to be heard. "What do I call you?" he asked.

The Ruler of the Underworld raised an eyebrow, or at least the muscle that was where his eyebrow should have been. The real Piccolo didn't have a hair on his head after all. "Pardon?"

"Your name, I mean. You're not Mr. Piccolo and I can't call you by that name. It's a…respect kind of thing."

The man stared at him before he tilted his head forward in acquiescence. "Very well." There was a hint of approval in his voice.

He then closed the book in his lap. The movement drew Gohan's attention, his eyes staring right at a familiar cover. _Is that Mr. Piccolo's story book?_ It had been a long time since he had seen that book, along with its...pictures. However, his attention was soon diverted as, right before his eyes, the man seemed to age. His healthy green skin took on a darker tone; the pink patches along his arms became a dull yellow. Wrinkles marred his face and an aged look shone form his eyes. "My name is not something that mortals should know about," he said then, his voice deeper. "In fact, if you thought my real form was bad, if I told you my name, your head would implode, followed by your body exploding. It took quite a few mortals for everyone to figure that one out."

Gohan gulped. Perhaps it was best to move on then.

"However, you may call me King Piccolo."

"Alright, King Piccolo it is," the young man agreed quickly. "So, I'm guessing you know why I've come."

"Not really, no."

Gohan stared at King Piccolo. It had been so long since he had been in this bizarre world, he had practically forgotten why he had come here. Scratch that, he had forgotten. A sickening feeling welled up in his stomach.

Geez, now what did he do? Before this being that controlled the Underworld, he had all sorts of…strange help. The white rabbit was chief among them, but considering it was nowhere to be found he would have settled for just about anything. He would've taken the Sharpner Cat at this point.

"The Cheshire Cat has no power here," King Piccolo said, causing the youth to jerk his head up. There was an amused smirk on his face, his eyes dancing with mirth. "Your thoughts are an open book to me, child," he explained. "Though potent, the Cheshire Cat would not dare set foot on this plateau. He lost control of his mind the last time he did and, though he is now clearly insane, he won't risk losing the rest of it."

Now that was scary. In fact, if he had anything in his colon, he would've lost them right then and there. Except…there was one thing that bothered him.

"You're all-powerful here, right?" Gohan asked King Piccolo, who inclinded his head in the affirmative. "Then isn't it possible you created the Sharp…the Cheshire Cat the way he is?"

There was a moment of silence before King Piccolo's small smile grew wide. "You're rather quick," he complimented him. "Not like the first time you came here."

A jolt shot up the young man's spine. "First time?" he sputtered out. "You mean I've been here before?"

The green man's smile softened. "Perhaps that's why you've come here. You wished to know about what happened."

* * *

 _"Bideru! My baby girl!" the boisterous voice of the king rang out. Clothed in maroon robes, the tall man crossed the room with his hair arms wide open._

 _Gohan watched as this man with the head of black curly hair enveloped Videl in a hug, the small girl practically vanishing in his arms. "Daddy," she whined, her face wincing. "I…missed you…too…_

 _"But can you…put me…down?"_

 _"What did you say?" Demon Head Hercule questioned as he all but dropped his daughter, the young woman somehow staying on her feet. "Do not tell me you cannot receive a hug from your dear father!"_

 _Gohan just watched all of this in amusement. Videl had warned him of what would happen. In fact, it was all she had talked about leading up to their arrival at the Palace. The two of them had been summoned by a messenger of the Demon Kingdom, though the invite was mostly for the dark-haired princess. She had been quite insistent that he come with her, though.  
_

 _Apparently, Videl's father had someone obtained the crown of the fallen kingdom and had spent many years restoring it. It was only recently that he had summoned his daughter to his newly-acquired court, only to realize the castle he had left her in was empty save for her pet dragon._

 _"Do you know how worried I was?" Demon Head Hercule practically shouted. "I thought that pet of yours had eaten you. Why, if it was not for all the fire-breathing it does, I would have had it opened to make sure!"_

 _"Daddy!" Videl screamed in outrage. "You did not hurt Icarus!"_

 _"Like I said, I would have, but every time I tried, it burned someone up. I had to settle for digging around its dropping for a month!"_

 _The image of the king digging around in fecal matter was not one Gohan wished to think about. Unfortunately, said king suddenly turned his blue eyes onto him and the look on his face changed from happy and excited to a scowl that threatened instant death. "And who do you think_ you _are?" he demanded in a deathly tone._

 _"Greetings, your Highness," the young man greeted. It had been something he practiced with Videl the entire day yesterday. "I am—"_

 _"I do not care who you are! You better not have violated my daughter, you scrawny peasant! If you have, I will have you flayed right here, right now."_

 _Gohan was pretty certain that such a thing would happen if he did not say the correct words in the correct way. "I did not touch the princess in any way, shape, or form," he said confidently._

 _Demon Head Hercule leaned in close to his face. "Is that so?"_

 _"Yes, your Highness."_

 _What felt like an hour passed by before the Demon Head pulled away. "I will take your word for it," he grumbled before he raised his voice, "but do not think I trust you. One lingering look, one tiny touch of your crap-covered hand on her delicate one, and you will be disemboweled before the day is over. Understand?"_

 _"I understand."_

 _"Good." Demon Head Hercule turned away and began to walk back towards his throne. Videl slinked up next to him, causing the young man to lean his head closer to her._

 _"Well done," she whispered to him. "Even I almost believed you."_

 _"As I recall," Gohan whispered back, "it was you who violated me."_

 _A moment passed before Videl turned her head to glare at him. "Ha, ha," she growled._

* * *

Gohan blinked his eyes. Gone was the throne room of Demon Head Hercule and in its place was the dark Underworld. King Piccolo hadn't moved from his seat, but he was watching the youth with a critical eye.

"What—" Gohan stopped to clear his threat before trying again, "What happened the first time?"

"Oh, nothing much," he shrugged, even as his green skin began to pale, dark hair rising out of his head like a flame. "Your soul entered the Underworld like everyone else's."

"Entered? Whoa, what?" The youth couldn't wrap his head around it. His soul had been here? How? When? Why?

Well, maybe not why. The only way he could have gotten here was if he—

"You died," Monkey Head Vegeta interrupted his thoughts, his stern facial features replacing King Piccolo's.

* * *

 _"Gohan!" Videl hovered over him. Her hand gripped his tightly, so much so they were practically white. "Hold on, okay? Just hold on. I can heal you. Just—"_

 _Gohan coughed, blood coming out of his mouth. A large trickle trailed form the corner of his mouth and down the side of his face. Pain seared through his stomach, the result of a sword runned through him._

 _He couldn't talk. He wanted to so badly. Videl was frantic, her eyes searching all over his body to figure out where she should start when it was clear it was unnecessary. It was far too late. Though she knew some basic healing spells, none of those were powerful enough to reverse what was clearly happening.  
_

 _So he stared at her as long as he could hold out, right until she finally locked her blue eyes onto his. "No," she whispered hoarsely. "No! Don't you give up on me! Gohan! Gohan!"_

* * *

It was strange. He hadn't known these things had happened. Couldn't have known they happened. Yet, it seemed… _right_ that he did.

"I don't…remember…" he said softly.

"Of course you wouldn't," Lord Vegeta responded. "Death isn't an easy thing."

Gohan didn't hear him. Well, he did, but the man's words didn't really register. Pieces were connecting in his mind that hadn't before. "Do you know anything about this?" he asked then, finally focusing on the Underworld's king.

He nodded, even as his body seemed to become slimmer, his face softer and more feminine. "I know many things."

"Then tell me everything."

* * *

 _"You have to go," Videl said, her eyes wide in fear._

 _"Videl, you know I didn't do this," Gohan replied desperately._

 _"Of course I know, you idiot. But everyone else doesn't. You know as well as anyone just how strained relations are between the Monkey and Demon Kingdoms. And considering what happened at the Head House, things are going to get even more out of hand than last time. Not everyone here agreed with your decision, you know, and they'd be willing to believe anything bad about you without a shred of proof."_

 _That much was true. Gohan sighed. "So you're going to stay?" he asked her._

 _"I have to. I'll buy as much time as I can for you to get back to the Monkey Kingdom." The dark-haired couple looked into each others before they closed the distance between each other and kissed._

 _"Now go," she told him._

* * *

"There's really not much to say," the familiar, friendly voice of Launch told him. Curly blue hair replaced the sharper, dark strands of the Monkey Head until the woman had completely replaced him in the throne. "Do you have any idea how many souls come here? Countless. To know everything about one of them is neigh impossible."

He was hiding something. Gohan could practically smell it. "I get the feeling you would though. As you said, countless souls come here. I'd imagine _all_ souls come here."

Launch nodded in agreement. "You would be correct."

"But I returned to the…uh…upper world? Normal world? I'm not sure what you call it, but I returned there. If I had died, there's no way I could have."

He received a grin for that. "You are sharp," the blue-haired woman said proudly.

"How did that happen?"

"The girl."

* * *

 _The world was strange. There was no way around it. What was up was down and what was down was not necessarily up. Black and white may as well have been blue and green, yet they weren't. Flowers could talk, but they weren't all that interesting._

 _A white rabbit was, though._

 _In front of him, a rabbit was hopping along. It round, fluffy tail wiggled behind it as it kept ahead of him. Every so often it would turn its head to look at him, a pair of long ears flopping about as it did so._

 _Faintly, the rabbit's face seemed to change for some reason. Instead of the fluffy, cute features, he could almost make out a different face. A girl's face. One with blue eyes._

 _Then it would turn and hop further away from him. He didn't give up chasing it. He felt compelled to follow it. Not even the teasing of the hair-brained cat could distract him. Into a temple and down some stairs he followed until he reached a dock. He came up short of its edge as something about the waters seemed to warn him._

 _The rabbit was looking at him, sitting on its haunches. For a moment—only one—the image of a girl in pure white stood in its place. Her dark hair was tied into pig tails that emerged high on her head, almost as if they were rabbit ears._

"Stay with me…" _her voice whispered softly, comfortingly. He had to wonder if he had actually heard it, but something in him told him he had. For some reason he didn't want to leave her._

 _And then the rabbit returned just as a rickety boat and a ferryman in a black robe approached the dock._

* * *

"She came for your soul," Launch told him softly, pulling Gohan out of his reverie. "She begged, pleaded, and wept for me to return you. So we made a deal."

"A deal?"

Launch's hair began to recede back into her hair until she was completely bald. Her womanly features became bulkier, masculine, even as a third eye appeared on her formerly smooth forehead. "If she could find your soul and bring it here, I would let you return to the Mortal World," Tien replied calmly. "As you can tell, she was successful."

The young man had to admit that was correct. Yet, something lingered in the back of his mind. "If you did restore me though, why couldn't I remember?" he questioned. "I traveled around for who knows how long without any memory of who I was, or who other people were."

"That was part and parcel of the deal," the bald man answered. "You see, the world does not run in absolutes. No one receives one hundred percent of what they desire. A farmer grows food year-round, but how much of it is he able to successfully harvest? A merchant buys a shipment of goods, but doesn't always recoup their investment. A king commands his subjects to war, but not everyone answers his call."

Which meant that even if Videl had managed to retrieve his spirit, there was no way she could bring all of him with her. "Your woman had two tasks ahead of her," Tien continued. "The first part she accomplished, as we have determined. The second part was to take you back to the entrance she had used to enter the Underworld. As you're well aware, that path is not the safest."

"So she had to pay for a safe passage," Gohan surmised. How else would the two of them get out of here in one piece after all? That made sense to him.

"Close, but not quite. You see, she had weathered the dangers in this world without weapon or defense to bring you to this island. You, on the other hand, had given up nothing. That price was your memory."

* * *

 _"Are you okay?" The voice was gentle, hesitant even. Coughing, the young man could not stop, even as his chest began to hurt._

 _Then he looked to the source of the voice and his next cough was caught in his throat. A veritable angel looked down on him in worry. One of her hands reached out to carress his cheek, offering a warmth that was thawed the coldness of his skin._

 _"Lay down," she said soothingly and he did as he was told. The dirt he laid on was solid, though there were some bumps from what felt like roots. He was faintly aware of a cave, but for some reason he couldn't focus on it._

 _In the meantime, the girl stayed at his side. Her legs coiled underneath her as she looked down on him. Curiously, tears began to well up around her eyes, falling onto him as they dropped. "It's all okay. Everything is okay now."_

 _And he believed her._

* * *

"You're sure that was all that had to be paid?" Gohan continued to press. If it was truth that his memory was all that needed to be taken, then there was no reason why Videl couldn't have just told him everything from the start. Instead she had kept this entire adventure quiet.

Tien chuckled, even as he began to shrink in stature, black hair emerging out of his head even as his nose vanished. "If you must know, no," Lord Krillen responded. "The girl had to swear that she could not tell you any of this. If she had, your soul would immediately return to the Underworld where it belonged. As you can imagine, that was a mighty powerful incentive."

"So why are you telling me all of this?" he asked then. "If she couldn't tell me, why can you?"

"Because I'm not bound to that oath. Even though I took your memory, your woman is a crafty one. She made sure that if you discovered anything about this on your own that it would not violate our agreement. She argued for that with all the tenacity of an elder statesman. I was impressed as you can tell."

And as it turned out, Gohan had learned these things, albeit most of it through yet another near-death experience. However, there was still something else. "Do you know why I was killed?"

* * *

 _The man had come out of nowhere, yet stood there as if he had always been there, much like the trees around them. The youth wasn't sure when the man moved, but in an instant he was on him. Still, Gohan had been able to draw his sword. Awkwardly he swung it to a side, just in time to block the sword stroke that had been slicing towards him._

 _The clang of steel echoed throughout the trees. A man with black hair pulled into a ponytail immediately pulled his sword back, only to maneuver into a stance with the weapon's tip pointed right at him. Lunging forward, he thrust his sword at the young man._

 _Gohan ducked to a side even as he brought his own sword up, blocking a potential side sweep. Unfortunately, the forest floor was uneven and he stumbled._

 _This man, this assassin pressed on his advantage. Flicking his wrist from one side to the other and back, he beat Gohan's sword, pushing it around as if it were a leaf in the wind. Gohan tried to regain his footing, but couldn't quite do it as he also scrambled backwards. Gritting his teeth, forced his sword in front of him, holding it tightly._

 _Then he went on the offensive, pushing forward as he lifted his sword above his head before swinging it down. The assassin blocked the strike and parried, going low._

 _And then he felt it. The assassin's sword slid right through his stomach and out his back. Gohan's breath caught in his throat._

 _"Too easy," the man said with dissatisfaction. "I expected more from a Monkey Prince." He then released his sword, which allowed Gohan to fall to his knees. The world seemed to slow down as the assassin turned his back on him, a braid of his black hair swaying behind him._

 _He then fell onto his side, unconsciously rolling onto his back as the sword stuck out of him. So this was it; this was how he would die. He could feel something wet gathering at the corner of his mouth, something that tasted of copper._

* * *

"That I don't know," Lord Krillen admitted. "Nor do I care. The matters of the Mortal World mean little to me."

For some reason Gohan's stomach hurt; it was as if he had been stabbed there. The young man even glanced down to make sure that wasn't the case and found no sign of bleeding, or that he even been sliced open. It was a strange thought to have at that moment.

However, the Underworld's Ruler's words began to haunt his mind. "You said that if I was to find out about all of this, I'd be brought back here," he slowly began. "Does this mean I'm stuck here?"

"If only," Lord Krillen chuckled. He then began to grow, his black hair seeming to grow longer even as the strands moved into a bun. The taller form once again became more feminine, the face the proper, stern, and demanding face of his mother. "The agreement was that she couldn't tell you, not that you couldn't do anything to find out. Seeing as I'm not restricted by the terms, I can tell you all I want."

"So why are you doing so? Won't you…lose the agreement?"

"I rarely lose. All souls come to this place eventually, it's just a matter of when, not if. So what if I can't reclaim your soul now? By telling you these things, perhaps I've hasten your death. You seem the type to throw yourself into danger so it's very likely. Or maybe you'll retreat to a place of solitude and prolong your life longer than I thought possible. We will meet again, I assure you of this."

Well, that was certainly one way to look at it. Gohan felt that there was little more he could learn in this place. However, this did lead him back to his original purpose for coming here. "Umm, before I go, I understand the waters of the River Styx can grant invulnerability. Is that true?"

Lady Chichi stared at him for a long time. "What fool told you that?"

"Well, there are all these stories about people bathing in its waters and being able to do incredible things."

"Have you met any of these people?"

"Umm, no?"

The Underworld's ruler sighed. "Then let me tell you a secret: there's a reason those are only stories. Anyone that steps foot in the waters of the River Styx is trapped for all eternity. They will waste away, becoming a ghost that haunts the river. Sounds fun, right?"

Gohan gulped. So, apparently there were quite a few misconceptions about this place. Considering this was the place where dead people went, perhaps it should have been obvious that a river that ran through it would cause something quite horrible. "I see," he stammered after awhile. "So, mind telling me how I can find my way out of here?" he asked hopefully. Maybe he'd have better luck if he tried to leave the Underworld rather than become a tenant.

Lady Chichi smiled then, but it was not the small one she or the other forms had been using. Instead, the smile was wide and eerily similar to the Cheshire Cat's. "Oh, I may know of a way, but why tell you that? There's still so much fun we can have."

 _Uh oh…_

Standing up, the dress of Lady Chichi appeared much different than her usual wardrobe. Reds and blacks mingled together, looking much like a checker board. A ring of hearts formed the bottom of the skirt as it covered her from waist to feet. Then out of nowhere, a long, cruel-looking axe appeared in her hand. "This is my favorite game," she said eagerly, even as she held the axe above her head with both hands.

"Off with his head!"

* * *

Dende sat on ground, his eyes staring at the cave opening.

It had been a long time since Gohan had entered the cave. The sun had moved quite some distance through the sky, causing the shadows to swing in different directions. The witch Baba hovered over the dirt on her large crystal ball. She seemed indifferent to everything around her.

"He's been in there a long time," she suddenly spoke, her ancient eyes flickering over to the young demon.

"He has," Dende agreed evenly. "What do you suppose is going on in there?"

"Who knows? That cave only shows what lays in a man's mind. Their thoughts and feelings shape the world within and are reflected back at them."

"I thought you said this was the portal to the Underworld?" Dende protested.

"What else would you expect that world to be like?" she countered.

The witch had a point there. Since Dende had never been in that place, he didn't know what lay there. As he understood it, Gohan had been there before so he wondered just what it looked to him. Was it a paradise? A tower of torment?

A bizarre world of illogical creatures leading him in every direction yet no direction with no discernible logic?

Dende paused at that.

Nawww, it couldn't be that.

Suddenly, his ears picked up on a sound. His head perking up, the little green demon listened carefully until a small smile appeared on his face. Those were footsteps he was hearing and they were growing louder with every step that was taken. Praise be to Kami.

And then Gohan appeared. His appearance…was not how he looked prior. If Dende wasn't mistaken, his clothes seemed singed and ripped. The Monkey Prince's face was marred by burns and shallow cuts, his hair more wild than ever. He even seemed out of sorts, as if he had seen things he rather not have seen.

Dende stood up. "Welcome back, your Highness," he greeted him.

Gohan's head jerked towards him. "You're really Dende, right?" he asked, his voice desperate.

"Yes, yes I am."

Suddenly, Gohan was right in front of him, his hands patting down the bewildered demon. "You are real," he said breathlessly before he cried out in happiness. At least he tried to; his voice came out wheezy and weak.

"I see you've had a fun time," Baba remarked as she floated towards the two young men. "Did you find what you seek?"

Suddenly, Gohan's eyes sharpened. "I'm being framed."

"Really? For what?"

Gohan then looked to Dende. "Someone has gone out of their way to make it look like I killed the late-Demon Head Hercule. They sent an assassin after me and killed me to make sure I couldn't prove it false."

"Oh, is that all?" Baba looked wistfully at that. "I was framed for the exact same thing once."

That earned her the attention of the youths. "What did they frame you for?" the Monkey Prince inquired.

"That I turned some sniveling lord into a frog. It wasn't a frog, it was a newt."

"Oh. I guess we all have our problems."

"Preaching to the choir, sonny boy."

However, a sly smirk appeared on the witch's face, a shadow growing over his face due to the brim of her hat. Dende didn't like that look one bit. "What makes you think you were framed? Are you sure you aren't seeing what you want to see?"

Gohan held himself confidently, ignoring her definition of wrongly accused. "I am. I had a bunch of memories shown to me, but the only way they make sense is if I was framed. I know I didn't kill the Demon Head; I rarely left Videl's side in Dabara, so she knows it too. Then there was the assassin that hunted me down. He was waiting for me in those woods, as if he knew I'd be coming through. No way does that happen unless he was in on it."

"So now what do we do?" Dende asked, trying to ward off anymore doubts the witch could muster. "You've become invulnerable like you planned, yes?"

An uneasy smile appeared on the young man's face. "Not quite. Turns out those stories were just that—not to mention flat out dangerous. For now we need to get proof of this frame job and there's only one person that has the answers we need."

"And who is that?"

"Tao Pai Pai."

Dende stared at him. "Umm, did he not kill you before? What makes you think you can apprehend him and learn what he knows?" His words were not meant to be taken negatively. They were said in a matter to convey curiosity. He wanted to know how this young man planned to make a hardened killer admit to a conspiracy.

"We're going to need help," Gohan replied.

"A lot of help," Baba muttered under her breath. "Preferably at an asylum."

Gohan ignored the remark. "We need to get word out to people aligned with our cause."

"There's not that many people out there," Dende responded. "Most of the Demon Kingdom wants you hanged, aside from my tribe. The same could be said about the Ribbon Kingdom."

But then Dende realized there was a place that was wholly invested in keeping the young prince alive. If they knew of his predicament, they'd send whole armies to protect and assist him.

"I believe I can trust you with this part of our quest," Gohan said, clasping a hand onto Dende's shoulder. "In the meantime, I need to find Tao Pai Pai. We don't have much time to do this, I'm afraid."

"He's not going to appear because you want him to," Baba pointed out.

"Don't worry, I have a plan for that."

"And what is that plan?"

"We have to draw him out with live bait."

* * *

The _Alice in Wonderland_ concept for the Underworld is actually inspired by megaminoeien's _DQZ Down the Hole Sketch._ I had liked the idea of going into Wonderland in DQZ, but it didn't fit with that story, not to mention at best it may have been a dream sequence that didn't really contribute to the story's overall plot. So when Ms Videl Son and I were brainstorming for this story, I was adamant that we use Wonderland. That's when MVS came up with the idea of making it the Underworld and this is where the rest of the story grew out of. While we had other ideas with this concept, they all didn't come to fruition, but of the ones that did, I rather like how they came out. I do wish we had gotten some more of our other ideas, but Life has a way of throwing a monkey wrench into things.

To Zerolink100: I hope the interaction was what you hoped it would be. It was quite interesting to write.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	27. Live Bait

Tao Pai Pai was not a stupid man. He had become one of the top assassins in the world for a reason. He was methodical, tactically-inclined, and not someone to be underestimated. If he wanted to not be found, no one would be able to. He would reveal himself at his own discression.

So what did one have to do to make such a man reveal himself?

Give him something that he wants.

In this case, it was Gohan personally. That would be the only reason he reared his head out of whatever hole he was hiding in. Still, when one was setting up a trap, it had to not look like a trap.

"Hello!" Gohan cheerily called out as he strolled through the village. The villagers one-by-one stopped what they were doing to stare at him. Some clearly didn't care while others had their mouths gaping wide, flabbergasted at the sight of him.

Smiling, the young man waved at them all, strutting down the dirt path. "Good morning, everyone! You're looking great today! Just to let you know, I'm a wanted man. Killed a guy in cold blood. Tell your friends!"

Okay, so he wasn't being subtle about it. Tao Pai Pai was a cunning man, so he would naturally assume that any trap that did not look like a trap was indeed a trap. So, it was a matter of making a trap so obviously a trap that it could not be a trap, but was indeed a trap. It made perfect sense if you looked at it the right way.

Thankfully, none of the villagers had attempted to stop him. They all seemed content to just watch him pass before resuming with whatever they were doing, almost as if nothing had happened at all. But they knew, oh yes, they knew. It was the same way it had happened in the three previous villages.

Reaching the outskirts of this one, Gohan found Dende waiting for him. "How did it go?" the green demon asked pleasantly.

"It went all according to plan," Gohan replied as Dende joined him in his walk. "How about your end?"

"I haven't received an answer, but I have kept my ear to the ground," his friend answered. "Word is there is some excitement in the kingdom."

That wasn't really what Gohan wanted to hear, but he'd take it. It was only a matter of time before everything fell into—

Something caught his eye then. Slowing his pace, the youth looked towards a nearby tree, a piece of paper nailed to it. There was writing and a picture on it. Walking towards it, he soon discovered it was a Wanted poster, the picture of him done by a rather talented artist. There was a mentioning of a reward and that he had been spotted in the area. It had to have been posted here in the last day or so.

"What do you make of this?" Dende questioned, looking between the notice and Gohan.

"Not exactly what I was going for," he admitted. Because of this, there would be quite a few bounty hunters making their way here—not exactly something he wanted to deal with, even though he knew it was a possible outcome from this stunt. Unfortunately, that was just the price they would have to pay if they were going head first into this plan. "I guess we'll deal with it if the time comes."

So they continued their journey. They came across another village and Gohan did his best to show himself off. Through all of his cheeriness though, on the inside he was as paranoid as can be. Much of the last few months of his life had been spent keeping a low profile and that had become habit forming. Proudly displaying himself went against everything he had unconsciously trained himself to do.

Dende did not accompany him into the village either. Every time he would walk around the village to meet him on the other side, so as not to alert anyone that there was more of them. Allegedly he was using his magic to search out for anyone that might have any inclination to taking a stab at Gohan, but as far as he knew no one had.

Exiting the village, he rejoined the young demon and they once more traveled down the path together. There were a few more trees in this area and they were even coming up to a small hill just off the side of the path. "Did you sense anything?" Gohan asked after awhile.

Dende shook his head. "No, not here either."

"We may need to try a different area, if not a different kingdom. I had hoped the Turtle Kingdom would've been a neutral enough place so that we could avoid any problems with the kingdom's guards. Perhaps we need to go to a more hostile country."

"If that's what you think," Dende replied.

 **"STOP."**

The young men instantly halted in their tracks. Both looked to each other with surprised looks before turning their eyes to the hill next to them. The voice that had spoke had been deep and commanding; it was one that demanded their attention. "Is someone there?" Gohan called out.

 **"YOU SHALL NOT TAKE ANOTHER STEP, VILLAIN. I KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU ARE. SURRENDER YOURSELF NOW, OR SUFFER."**

Well, now that was fantastic. It seemed someone had come to collect on that bounty at long last. Gohan frowned at his companion. "I think you missed someone," he commented.

"Many apologies," Dende said apologetically. "I hadn't thought to search the surrounding area."

 **"CEASE YOUR INANE BABBLE!"** the voice demanded. **"WILL YOU SURRENDER YOURSELVES, OR MUST I FORCE YOU TO SUBMIT?"**

"Umm, I'm sorry," Gohan responded. "Neither of us can surrender to you. You see, we're in the middle of something and it simply can't be interrupted. Perhaps if you find us after our business is complete, we'll surrender to you."

There was a moment's silence before he received a reply. **"UNACCEPTABLE. IT SEEMS YOU DO NOT TAKE ME SERIOUSLY—A MISTAKE YOU WILL NOT LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO REGRET. BEHOLD! I SHALL SHOW YOU THE SHAPE OF A THOUSAND HORRORS!"**

Gohan and Dende looked at each other worriedly. This was definitely not in the plan. Looking back at the hill, a bright light began to pour over it. Concern began to well up within Gohan. Whoever, whatever was coming over this hill, it did not make idly threats for the sake of making them. It seemed they would actually have to fight.

A figure appeared in the light. It was small at first, appearing black to the eye. It took a moment before its features could be made out.

As it turned out, it was most definitely small. In fact, its entire body was covered in yellowish hair—the young man would've gone to say it was blonde even. A tiny belt was wrapped around its waist, a sword scabbard dangling form it. A tiny hand clutched a small sword, which it held up in the air. Its face was the face of a rodent, its nose constantly twitching.

 _"Behold my incredible body!"_ it announced, its voice no longer the deep, foreboding one, instead replaced with a high-pitched squeaky one.

Gohan and Dende blinked. This was it? A guinea pig? They had actually been trembling over _this?_ Dear Lord, what was the world coming to?

"Umm, Prince Gohan," Dende spoke then. It seemed he had noticed something that the youth had not. "Does this not remind you of our former companion?"

At first, Gohan was going to dismiss such a question, except that the longer he stared at the guinea pig, the more he was coming to the same conclusion.

"Sharpner? Is that you?"

 _"Of course it's me, Arch-Enemy!"_ the guinea pig screamed. _"Who else did you expect it to be?"_

No. No, no, no. This couldn't be happening. How was it that a guinea pig could find such tiny weapons? And stand on its back legs? More importantly, how did it learn how to talk?!

The answer—an obvious one at that—came to him an instant later. This was Sharpner. Nothing was impossible for him.

 _"You're speechless!"_ Sharpner proclaimed giddily. _"I knew you'd be."_

"Sharpner, how did you escape Baba's petting zoo?" Gohan had to know since it seemed as if the young ma...guinea pig was trapped there for the rest of his life.

 _"You should know, Arch-Enemy, nothing can lock the Great Sharpner away. I bide my time, meticulously plotted my escaped, and sought out freedom. The witch was obviously enraged by my ingenious escape that she set hawks after me to stop my journey out of her deadly woods and to civilization."_

A moment passed before, "So you slipped away when Baba wasn't looking, got lost in the forest where a few hawks tried to make you their lunch before stumbling out into a nearby village."

 _"Like I said, I meticulously plotted—"_

"I believe we have nothing to worry about here," Dende spoke then.

Sharpner looked stunned, at least as stunned as a guinea pig could get. _"You…you dare treat me as an after-thought? I am not an after-thought! I am the hero of this story and I demand the respect that is entitled to the hero!"_

Dende slowly leaned towards Gohan. "What is he talking about?" the little green man whispered.

"Something only he can understand," the dark-haired young man answered.

 _"If you were to read the_ Little Hero's Handbook: I'm a Hero And so Can You! _you'd see that see under the fifth chapter, eighth paragraph—"_

Gohan blinked owlishly. He didn't know Sharpner could read. Huh, that was plot twist he hadn't seen coming.

"You know, if we just walked away, he'd never know," Dende pointed out then. "He's so caught up in his monologue, he wouldn't notice."

 _"—and thus entails how rivals act towards the hero, though that doesn't entirely encompass our dynamic, so—"_

"I believe you're right," Gohan agreed. "Let's go."

Both youths turned and began walking down the path once more, the little guinea pig oblivious to their movements. At least it appeared that why until his high-pitched voiced screamed.

 _"You dare turn your back to me, Sharpner! That is unforgivable! Taste the wrath of a hero!"_

The young men barely had time to turn around before Sharpner launched himself off the hill, flying through the air like a small, furry bullet. It was impossibly fast for something so small. In fact, there wasn't any chance for either of them to move as Sharpner slammed right into Gohan's chest.

Then bounce off like a furry ball.

It had felt more like a tap than anything. Gohan felt the guinea pig hit him, but that was it. No pain, nothing. Again he found himself blinking owlishly as he looked down at Sharpner as he stared back in haughty superiority.

 _"How'd you like that, huh? Want some more?"_

They just stared down at him.

 _"Oh, you really want more! Then take this!"_

In a blur, Sharpner shot off from the ground, hitting Dende in the chest. He bounced towards Gohan and nailed him in the check. Back and forth, he pounded on the two men, not even so much as causing them to flinch. Eventually he bounced off of Gohan again and landed on the ground, puffing over and over from exertion. " _There, how'd you like that?!"_

"I say we just leave," Dende suggested.

 _"Hey! Don't act as if you aren't hurt!"_

"I agree with that," Gohan replied.

 _"Don't you ignore me!"_

The two youths then turned to again walk away and came to an immediate stop. Further down the trail was a man in a pink surcoat, his arms held behind his back as his eyes bore holes into them.

Tao Pai Pai.

"You certainly have gotten sloppy," he commented. "In fact, I would've suspected a trap with just how oblivious you have been."

Gohan gulped, unconsciously stepping backwards. Oh, crap, Tao Pai Pai was onto them. Damn it, he should've known—

"But then, if this were indeed some feeble attempt at a trap, it would be so obvious that it was a trap," he continued when neither youngster responded to him. "So I highly doubt you're clever enough to attempt a trap after this display of foolishness."

Huh, he was really buying it.

"Dende, on the count of three," he said, his friend bracing himself next to him.

"Escape is futile," Tao Pai Pai warned. "And fighting me is equally as futile as you are well enough aware."

"One," Gohan counted.

The assassin took a step towards him. "You'll only be prolonging your death."

"Three!"

Immediately, Gohan and Dende bolted towards the forest next to them, disappearing amidst the trees. Behind them, they could hear Sharpner's screaming after them, though they cared not a wit what he was saying. Besides, it was all just squeaking at this point.

The terrain was bumpy and there was no obvious trail here. The two scrambled over tree roots, slipped on leaves, jumped over fallen branches, and pushed off of trees as they ran by them. Every so often one of them would look behind the them to see what their pursuer was doing.

That was why it was Dende who shouted, "Look out!"

The next thing Gohan knew, the little demon had tackled him to the ground, just as the shaft of a tree flew right where he had been running. Eyes bulging, Gohan watched as it crashed into the base of another tree trunk, the force causing the trunk to shatter into a million pieces of wood. The sound of breaking wood filled the air as the stationary tree began to tilt and fall over, crashing hard on the forest floor.

"I already told you, there is no use in escape."

Both Gohan and Dende snapped their head around. Standing fifteen, maybe twenty feet away was Tao Pai Pai. He still had his hands behind his back, looking no worse for wear. He wasn't even breathing hard as he gazed down on them.

Neither youth moved a muscle. It was obvious the assassin would strike them down if they tried to get up. Then again, he'd do the same if they just laid there. This impasse of theirs would be over the moment the dark-haired man made his next move.

As it turned out, they were given a couple of seconds. Moving one of his hands, Tao Pai Pai reached out to a tree next to him and pressed his palm against the bark. He took a deep breath, his eyes sharpening for a moment. Suddenly, the branches of the tree exploded off the trunk, sending them flying in every which direction save for where the three men were at. This left the tree bare of foliage.

Then he shot his foot, kicking it against the tree. Unbelievably, a clean cut sliced through one side of the trunk to the other, causing it to fall towards Tao Pai Pai, who raised both of his hands up to catch the newly-created log. Immediately, Gohan and Dende scrambled off of each other and onto their feet just as the assassin aimed one end of the giant log at them.

Both shot off in different directions as the man threw the tree at them. Its end collided at the spot where they laid previously, the force it hit with sending dirt and leaves exploding into the air. The log itself went into a flip, swinging end over end until it crashed length-wise against another tree.

In the meantime, Gohan found himself heading right towards a sudden drop. The closer he got to it, the more he realized tt wasn't a cliff, more like a steep hill to be honest, but he didn't stop as he jumped from the top, landing on the slope. His legs gave out and he dropped to his butt, but that didn't stop him from moving as he began sliding down the hillside. A cloud of dirt followed him as he slid, wet leaves crinkling underneath his body.

Once his speed began to slow, Gohan pushed himself off the ground, using his momentum to keep running at top speed. It was a little exhilarating, he had to admit, but it was necessary to stay alive.

And then he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Jerking his head, he saw Tao Pai Pai up in the trees. It looked as if he were moving sideways,literally perpendicular to the ground, as he moved from tree to tree as if he were running, one one foot touching against the side of the mighty oaks. He was circling around Gohan, attempting to cut him off. Unfortunately, there wasn't much the youth could do to stop it either.

Then, in midair, Tao Pai Pai pulled out his sword. Bouncing off of a tree, he let out a war cry as he sailed downwards to the youth, swinging his blade down. Gohan only had time to partially draw his own sword, holding it above his head with the sheath still covering the upper third.

The sound of steel colliding with steeling rang out in the forest. The power of the strike coupled with the unsteady ground send Gohan sliding backwards, his feet unable to stop him due to the leaves. However, it fortunately put distance between him and Tao Pai Pai, who bounced off the blocking sword to land on the ground. Immediately, both opponents went into stances, the assassin taking an offensive pose as Gohan fully drew his sword out and went defensively. It also helped that he finally came to a stop.

"Now isn't this familiar?" Tao Pai Pai called out. "I know I've seen this before. Oh what, oh what could it be?" A cruel smirk appeared on his face then. "Oh yes, now I remember. This is much like how our first fight went. We were in a forest just in the Monkey Kingdom, just like this one. If I recall right, it ended with me running my sword through you. In fact, dare I say it? It's how the second one went too.

"I wonder, will this time be any different?"

Gohan grimaced. It wasn't because of the taunt—that he could ignore and was. He just wished he had gotten further into the forest; it was much too early for this confrontation. Unfortunately, he didn't have much choice at the moment.

 _"Stop, you sad excuse for a scene stealer!"_

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Sharpner of all…guinea pigs, came flying at Tao Pai Pai, his furry body hitting the man in the check. However, unlike his barrage at Gohan and Dende earlier, he attacked with his tiny teeth and claws, scratching at the assassin's face.

Surprisingly, it actually caught Tao Pai Pai off guard as he cried out in surprise. Well it was more like anger at the feeble attack, but it was at least taking the assassin's attention off of the young man. Seeing the distraction before him, Gohan immediately darted away, running further into the woods.

"You little rat!" he heard Tao Pai Pai shout from somewhere behind him, coupled with Sharpner's frenetic squeaks. Though it sickened him to leave Sharpner behind in very dangerous company, the blond guinea pig had a knack for getting out of trouble. He'd be fine as long as Tao Pai Pai didn't slice him in half.

A high-pitched shriek filled the forest. "My berries!" the assassin's voice screamed, just as high-pitched as the scream.

Gohan slowed down before looking behind him. Had Sharpner hit Tao Pai Pai in his most sensitive spot? Now that was just a low blow, even for a guinea pig.

That was when he saw something small and yellow go flying through the air, _"WHHHHHHOOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"_ Sharpner screamed as he spun head over feet over and over between trees. Apparently the little rodent had been caught at long last and thrown as far away as possible.

Unfortunately, that meant that the dark-haired assassin was done with the distraction. Immediately, Gohan took off running again, crashing through brush as he did so.

There was no telling how far he had run or how deep this forest was. Everything was starting to look the same, yet different at the same time. It was because of this, Gohan failed to realize there was a drop off ahead of him. All he saw was dead-looking grass with some tree roots sticking out of the ground.

He realized what was happening when his foot met with open air.

Crying out, Gohan fell face first onto the ground, a good five feet down. He slid a couple more feet, but that was all. Slowly lifting his head up, he spat air out of his mouth to blow off a couple leaves that were attached to his lips. One immediately blew off, but one seemed to have taken a liking to him. It wasn't until he grabbed it with one hand and pulled it off that it left him.

That was when he realized the forest in front of him was changing. Up ahead, more light seemed to flow between the trees with what looked like a meadow creating a treeline. Perking up, Gohan began getting back onto his feet and stumbled towards it.

The sound of two feet landing behind him stopped him in his tracks.

Whipping around, sword point up, Gohan saw Tao Pai Pai mere feet away, not looking the least bit happy with him. The side of his face was scratched up, mostly white lines with the occasional red one to show that Sharpner had actually drawn blood. There was a noticeable rip in pants right at the groin too. "I have had enough of this chase, boy," he growled, taking a threatening step towards the youth.

"Stay back," Gohan yelled back, backing away.

"You have gone far enough, boy. Come face your doom."

Gohan's face hardened, re-gripping his sword for a better hold. It looked as if he wasn't going to be going any further now. Hopefully, Dende had gotten away.

A silence had fallen unto the two combatants. It probably would've continued until Tao Pai Pai attacked had it not been for the sound of a sword being pulled out of its sheath.

Gohan jerked his head up as Tao Pai Pai turned his to look behind him, relief appearing on the dark-haired youth's face. Standing on top of the short drop he had fallen off of was a man in orange armor, sword grasped tightly in one hand. His wild, black hair pointed in every which direction, yet it didn't distract from the hard look he was throwing at the assassin.

"I agree," Lord Goku spoke, "you have gone far enough, assassin."

* * *

To Zerolink100: It's mostly because it's the only interesting thing going on. Baba likes to be entertained after all.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	28. Lord Goku vs Tao Pai Pai

Because Tao Pai Pai was facing the other way, Gohan couldn't see the man's face. He hoped the assassin was in a state of shock, or even terror. It would have served him right.

Gohan's father took a step off the drop, falling the short distance down, and landed heavily on the dirt below. His feet left impression in the soil as he took a step forward. Lord Goku only had eyes for the assassin, his body on guard as he approached his foe.

Despite his readiness, he held his sword at his side, just dangling there. In Gohan's mind, that worried him. He had been taught to always keep his weapon between him and his opponent, never so far away from the point of action. Yet his father appeared for all intents and purposes at ease. Were it not for the stern look on his face, he would've thought the man was simply strolling through the woods with his weapon in hand.

"I have no quarrel with you, Monkey Lord," Tao Pai Pai spoke, shifting his stance towards this new comer. Faintly, Gohan felt relief at not having that wicked-looking sword pointed towards him. "Leave before I change that."

There was a flash and a ringing of steel meeting steel. Gohan had only blinked, but Lord Goku had made his move in a split-second. Though he had been closing the distance between Tao Pai Pai and himself, he was sudden in front of the assassin, his sword knocking his opponent's to a side. Then just as quickly, he did a back swing, one that Tao Pai Pai leaped backwards from to avoid.

There was an audible rip and Gohan could only imagine the tear that was on the assassin's clothes. Slowly the youth began to circle around so that he could get a better look at the fight.

Tao Pai Pai let out an enraged cry as he lunged at Lord Goku, arching his sword up and then down, aiming for a cut at the armored man's shoulder. With a swing of his arm, Lord Goku had his sword above his head, blocking the sword strike. Immediately, he parried the blow before bringing his sword down at a diagonal angle. Again the assassin backed away, but this time he kept his distance.

By now, Gohan had gotten a better view of the two fighters. While his father looked no worse for wear, there were two visible cuts in Tao Pai Pai's surcoat. There was a small smirk on Lord Goku's face, mocking his foe as if to say, _That's two._

However, he did speak. "There was already a quarrel between us the moment you tried to kill my son." His voice was serious, no reflection of the amusement his smile had held previously. "You have two choices: surrender yourself, or be forced to submit."

"I choose neither," Tao Pai Pai growled through clenched teeth. He then shifted his pose, standing with a side facing Lord Goku. His sword arm was at the back, raised up so that his sword arched crossed just over his head. His free arm was raised as well, his hand hovering just beneath the tip of the blade. "Prepare yourself, Monkey."

Letting out a war cry, the assassin charged at his foe. Twisting his body, he dropped his free arm as he thrust his sword forward. Lord Goku dodged to a side, the blade piercing through empty air.

Instantly, the blade turned, Tao Pai Pai swinging the sword across his body. However, he misjudged Lord Goku's dodge as the man had angled himself next to and then around a tree. The assassin's sword cut right into the tree, stopping the blade instantly.

Lord Goku went immediately into action. Bringing his sword high up, he swung it down, hitting Tao Pai Pai's sword right at its base. The tree acted like a vice on the sword, holding it so still that the Monkey Lord's blade broken it at the impact site. Tao Pai Pai stumbled back a step, still holding the hilt of his weapon, eyes wide with astonishment.

However, a broken blade didn't stop his face from twisting with rage right before he hurled the hilt at Lord Goku. The armored man batted the projectile aside easily, walking towards his foe once again.

Tao Pai Pai picked up his pace until he had several feet between him and his opponent. Holding his arms out to either side of him, knifes shot out of both of his sleeves, his hands grabbing onto their hilts. He then brought up the weapons, crossing their sharp edges in front of him.

Lord Goku was not fazed by this. In fact, he brought his sword up above his head again, swinging it down as he reached striking distance. However, Tao Pai Pai blocked the blow, cradling Lord Goku's sword in the space between his knives. With practiced ease, he shoved the sword to a side before doing a back swing with both blades.

The first knife scratched the front of Lord Goku's armors, causing a shrill screech between the metals. The second knife had been aimed higher. Jerking his head back, Gohan's father barely dodged the edge of the knife, some of his hair being cut as it passed by.

This left him open for Tao Pai Pai to continue to his turn, raising a leg up and kicking it out, his foot slamming into Lord Goku's torso and pushing him backwards. Clearly having the advantage, Tao Pai Pai didn't press it like he had the other times he had it, instead settling into a defensive stance, eyes focused on his foe.

Lord Goku seemed content with doing that, moving his sword up to hold it horizontally over the ground, the blade crossing in front of him. He gripped the hilt with both hands, his own eyes looking over the shining surface of the weapon.

"You know, you can't hit me anymore with that sword of yours," Tao Pai Pai spoke.

"Is that so?" Lord Goku challenged.

"Quite. You see, your weapon may have the advantage of range in comparison to mine, but it's heavier, so it requires more effort to use. My knives, on the other hand, are much lighter, and offer more maneuverability. As they've already proven, they can withstand a blow of your sword."

The Monkey Lord smirked. "I believe you may be right. However, at the expense of obtaining more speed, you lost power. As my armor has shown, you cannot pierce it with those letter openers."

"That was a glancing blow, nothing more," Tao Pai Pai retorted. "If I wanted to, I can kill you at any time."

"Then come and prove it."

Tao Pai Pai did just that, charging in, arms spread out wide with both of his knives pointing at his opponent. Lord Goku just stood still, his smirk ever present on his face. He didn't even move to defend himself as his opponent thrust his right dagger at his heart.

Much to Gohan's surprise the knife glanced right off the armor, scrapping it and nothing more. In an instant, his father's arm wrapped around the assassin's, pinning it to his own side. He then pulled his head back before swinging it forward, headbutting the other man with a loud cracking of the skulls.

Tao Pai Pai let out a cry from the blow, stunned by it so much that he didn't even attempt a counter with his other knife. Dropping his sword, the blade sliding into the dirt and helping it stand, Lord Goku raised his fist and slammed it into the assassin's face. Over and over, he rammed punch after punch before dropping his fist to grab onto Tao Pai Pai's belt. Using his strength, he hauled the man up off the ground and swung him through the air, slamming his back against a nearby tree.

Gohan winced from the collision, watching as the dark-haired man dropped to the dirt in a heap. Looking down at him impassionately, Lord Goku then stepped backwards, grabbing the hilt of his sword and yanking it up out of the dirt.

However, despite how much being slammed into a tree had to hurt, Tao Pai Pai wasn't defeated. With inhuman speed, he seemed to recover pushing himself onto his hands and the tips of his boots. With most of his weight on his hands, he used them to pivot, swinging his legs around in front of him. Because Lord Goku hadn't moved too far away, the assassin's legs hit him at the calves, knocking him off balance. With a surprised cry, the Monkey fell backwards, landing hard on his back.

Bringing his legs back behind him, Tao Pai Pai then launched himself up into the air, holding both of his daggers upside down in his hands. Holding them above his head, he let out another war cry as he aimed them right at Lord Goku's head.

Had Gohan been in his father's position, he would've simply held his sword up and let his opponent impale himself on it. Instead, the armored man rolled to a side, Tao Pai Pai landing where he had laid, his knives digging into the dirt and leaves.

As he rolled, Lord Goku pushed himself onto his hands and knees. Still holding his sword, he swung it up, oddly enough with the flat of the blade leading rather than the edge. It only occurred late to Gohan that his father had been aiming to stun the assassin with the flat of the blade rather than land a killing blow.

Unfortunately, Tao Pai Pai saw this and leaned back as far as he could, dropping down to the ground for added measure. The sword swung through the air harmlessly because of this.

In an instant, the assassin struck back. Pulling his daggers out of the ground, he lunged towards his opponent, stabbing his left knife right into a groove between the armor's shoulder and upper arm. The moment Lord Goku began to flex the arm, he found he couldn't as the knife's tip stopped any such move.

"I've got you now!" Tao Pai Pai shouted as he spun his other knife in his hand before thrusting it towards the Monkey Lord's face. Immediately, Lord Goku shot his other hand up, catching the assassin by the wrist and keeping the blade from advancing further.

However, this put him in an awkward position. His body couldn't keep him on his knees without support from his arms, especially with his torso turned to a side. Lord Goku ended up collapsing onto his back, Tao Pai Pai moving on top of him as he put his full weight behind his threatening dagger.

A sinking feeling welled up within Gohan. His father was on the losing end of this battle. Eventually, his strength would give out and Tao Pai Pai's knife would sink itself into his face. He couldn't allow it.

Adjusting his grip on his sword, Gohan made to held his father out, only for someone to step right in front of him. Surprised, the youth looked up to find another man in armor, the symbol of the Monkey Kingdom pained onto it. Where he had come from, he didn't know, but a part of him was miffed he hadn't shown himself until now. The armored man even held a hand out in front of the dark-haired young man to stop him from jumping into the fray.

"What are you doing?" he demanded as he made to move around the man, only to be stopped again.

"Protecting you, as the Lord ordered," the guard explained succinctly. He then nodded towards the two men. "Just wait. The Lord Goku is one of the kingdom's greatest warriors. He isn't defeated yet."

Looking back to the fight, Gohan stared curiously at the two men. Not much had changed between them except Tao Pai Pai's face was beginning to twist with something that wasn't quite anger. It looked more like pain to be honest.

And then Lord Goku twisted his hand and there was a loud snapping sound, followed by Tao Pai Pai screaming wildly. The knife fell from his head, to which the Monkey Lord tilted his head to a side to avoid an unnecessary cut. He then forced the assassin off of him, causing the man to let go of his other knife, which left it in place between the armor plates.

Releasing his hold on Tao Pai Pai, Lord Goku reached to the knife hilt and grabbed it, yanking it out of its hindering place. Returning his attention to the assassin, he saw the man writhing on the ground, grasping his broken wrist. He seemed to watch with rapt fascination before he tilted his head to a side and gave a nod.

Immediately, more guards of the Monkey Kingdom seemed to appear out of nowhere. Many of them moved between Gohan and the two combatants, making sure he was well-protected. Meanwhile, several of the other guards had bows notched with arrows in their hands and they surrounded Tao Pai Pai in a circle, aiming right for his head. Even though he was in pain, the assassin stopped squirming, looking at the archers through one slightly-opened eye.

With sword in hand, Lord Goku moved between two of the archers, pointing the tip of his sword right at the dark-haired man's throat. "Tao Pai Pai, you are now under the care of the Monkey Kingdom. If you try to fight us any longer, or attempt an escape, we shall make it harder for you to move—or to live a normal life for the rest of your days."

* * *

It seemed there was much Gohan didn't know about his father. While it was well known that the denizens of the Monkey Kingdom were some of the best warriors in the Four Kingdoms, that Lord Goku stood near the top—or at the top—of all of those fighters was incredible to find out.

It was fortunate that the Lord had been the one to receive his message. When contemplating the best way to find Tao Pai Pai, it was clear the only person he would reveal himself to was Gohan himself. Unfortunately, with his memory intact, he knew he was sorely below the assassin's skill level in combat. A plea to the Monkey House for assistance was the only way to apprehend the man.

Though Gohan had sent the petition to the Head of the Monkey House, Lord Goku had intercepted it mainly because he discovered it had his name on it. Upon reading it, he had assembled a number of Monkey Warriors and met him at the border of the Monkey lands and the lands considered to be under the jurisdiction of the Head House.

With the help present, all that was left was to have the assassin crawl out from underneath the rock he had been hiding under, which he had. Presently, Tao Pai Pai was surrounded by guards, his arms and legs shackled tightly. No chances were being taken with this man.

The sun was beginning to set, casting an orange light over the camp site. They were staying out of sight of the nearby villages since they had purposefully called in a lot of attention. Though the very presence of Monkey warriors would cause much second thinking by bounty hunters, it wouldn't stop troops from the Head House, or the Turtle House for that matter.

Sitting at a fire, Gohan stared into the flames. He was tired and wanted nothing more than to go to sleep, but the presence of Tao Pai Pai so close to him—even under guard—kept him from doing just that. There was also the issue of Dende.

Even now, the little demon was under constant suspicion of the Monkey guards. Dende was keeping himself close to Gohan, mostly thinking that if he stayed near the young man, no one would try to stick a dagger between his ribs. The bad blood between their respective houses was still present.

Fortunately, Lord Goku didn't seem to have a problem with Dende. _"Why is a demon in your company?" he had asked the moment he set eyes on the green boy._

Correction, there had been a problem in the beginning. _"This is Dende,"_ Gohan had been quick to introduce. _"He's been helping me out with this situation for awhile now. Had it not been for his healing magic, I would've died a couple of times."_

That had seemed to mollify his father into accepting the green demon. While Gohan was sure they wouldn't be friends due to the fact Dende resembled a much smaller Mr. Piccolo, at least he would keep his men from seeking some retribution.

 _"Unhand me, you hairy monkeys! Do you not know who you're holding?!"_

Then there was that. Sharpner had reappeared shortly after the fight with Tao Pai Pai. His temper hadn't cooled down one bit and there was currently a shackle wrapped around his fat, little body. It was the only thing they had to restrain him, even though everyone would have loved nothing more than to have it around his mouth.

Lord Goku looked at the blond guinea pig with a raised eyebrow. "It seems that friend of yours from Head House has…changed…since the last time I saw him."

"He has," Gohan agreed. "A witch had enough of him and turned him into…that."

"I see. Strange that he can still talk."

"What can I say? He's a special kind of per—guinea pig."

"I thought he was already special."

"Make that more special."

A small smile appeared on Lord Goku's face. "You have been keeping busy since the last time I saw you."

Gohan sighed. "It is not the adventure I hoped to have when we last talked."

"We share the same thoughts." It was his father's turn to sigh. "Perhaps it is time that you told me what is going on. I have heard many versions and none reflect the man I met at Head House."

"I can only tell you what I know," the young man warned him.

"That is what I want to know."

Gohan took a deep breath then. "About a year ago, Videl and I had been summoned to the Demon House. Videl's father had become the new Head of that House. Shortly after that, he died and I was accused of assassinating him."

Lord Goku nodded. "I heard of the accusation. Now that I know you were there and why, what came next?"

"Videl helped me flee the kingdom. I was near the border between the Monkey Kingdom and the Demon Kingdom when Tao Pai Pai caught up with me. We fought and he killed me."

His father's eyes hardened. There was an anger in them that he was was restraining, though Gohan wasn't sure for who's sake it was for. "Go on."

"Videl found me and went to the Underworld to ask for my soul back." At this he saw surprise on Lord Goku's face. "She was successful in getting me back, but unfortunately I had no memory of anything. Who I was; who anyone was. I think Videl took me back to your house at some point because I faintly recall seeing Chichi at some point."

"That is correct." Lord Goku looked pensive at this. "When you disappeared again, we sent guards everywhere to search for you. We were not successful obviously."

It felt good to know his parents had been searching for him. However, Gohan couldn't help but notice some of the expression his father was making, especially in regards to Videl. Was there something else going on here that he didn't know about? "I spent a year or so just wandering around. You know about the bounty of course, so I found myself having to avoid the bounty hunters who came to collect.

"Turned out Videl was behind the bounty. She had wanted me captured so that she could return me to the Monkey House. When that wasn't working, she went out to get me herself. It wasn't easy to do, unfortunately."

"What made it difficult?"

"Tao Pai Pai mostly, not to mention the Ribbon House making border crossing hard. Eventually we were forced to go to the Demon House. There Videl told me to go back to the Underworld; she thought it would give me an advantage if I bathed in the River Styx—long story, short, it doesn't—but instead I got all of my memories back. After that, I sent a message to you and that brings us to here."

"Whoa, cool story, Big Brother."

And that was another thing. Gohan looked to his left and saw Goten and Trunks sitting next to him. Why these two kids had joined in, he didn't know. Considering their parentage, he found it hard to believe someone had given them permission.

As a guard once muttered under his breath after he asked him what was going on, "They're stowaways."

They, of course, had been left out of the battle, but they had been balls of unbridled energy the moment they came to camp, dragging Tao Pai Pai with them. "Is this the guy? Was he any good? Hey, Gohan! You're alive! What's with the hamster? Why is there a little Piccolo guy? When's dinner?"

Just so you know, that had only been the first barrage of questions.

They quieted down after Lord Goku had ordered them to, but you could see they were trembling with more questions. It seemed Gohan's story had been just the thing to keep them quiet until now.

"You know, if you told Lady Chichi about this, I think it would get you out of trouble," Trunks told him.

"Oh yeah!" Goten wholeheartedly agreed. "You would not believe how angry she was when you disappeared again! She was saying she would nail you to the floor the next time she saw you."

"That is true," Lord Goku admitted.

Gohan gulped. It seemed he would have to keep that reunion delayed for awhile yet. "So now what?" he asked.

"Now we get answers out of your assassin." At this, Lord Goku stood up, Gohan joining him soon after. Gone was his armor and chain mail, instead replaced with a blue shirt and orange pants. Walking away from the fire, he approached where Tao Pai Pai was being held.

The assassin was sitting on a log, appearing to be calm despite the dangerous weapons aimed at his vital areas. Perhaps it was possible this wasn't the first time he had been held captive, even though his reputation suggested such a possibility was wrong. "Stay here," Lord Goku ordered to Gohan, who stopped where he was. A moment later, someone bumped into him, saying "oomf!"

Turning his head, he saw Goten, Trunks, and even Dende right behind him. It had been Goten that ran into the back of his legs. "I think he wants all of us to stay here," he said.

"What? You mean we can even see the guy?" Trunks demanded. "That is sooooo lame."

"You know that he could kill if he got loose."

"Ha! Like that'd happen. Look at all those arrows and swords. He even moves to scratch his nose and he'll get skewered."

"Aren't you supposed to be at Vegeta?"

Trunks' eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything in response. The message was clear.

In the meantime, Lord Goku knelt down a couple feet from the assassin, one arm resting on his knee. The two men stared each other down calmly for a minute or so before the Monkey Lord asked, "Who hired you?"

Tao Pai Pai didn't answer. He merely cradled his injured hand, which currently had a splint around it.

"Tell me who hired you," Lord Goku tried again.

Again, Tao Pai Pai didn't answer.

"If I have to cut you to pieces to get you to talk, I will," he threatened.

Tao Pai Pai finally reacted, raising an eyebrow. "I am a captive of yours. As per my profession, I will not give you anything. You may torture me as you please, but I will go to my grave in silence."

That was disappointing. Gohan hadn't counted on the assassin to keep his silence. He had thought that once he was captured, he would spill his guts about everything. Why couldn't things go his way for once?

"If that is the way you want it," Lord Goku said before standing up. "You have until we reach Vegeta. Once it is known of your activities, you will find your life very short."

"You don't scare me, Monkey."

"It is not me you need to be afraid of." Lord Goku then smiled. "It is my wife."

Tao Pai Pai didn't even flinch.

"Damn, he's one bad guy," Trunks commented. "She'll disembowel the guy the moment she hears he was the one that hurt Gohan."

Goten frowned. "Trunks? What's disemboweled?"

Trunks shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. It sounds bad, though."

"Oh."

"He seems quite loyal," Dende remarked then. "I wonder what it takes to earn such loyalty from him?"

The lavender-haired kid snorted. "He's not loyal. He's just paid to keep his mouth shut."

"Oh? Then what if we were to pay him to open it?"

Again, Trunks snorted. "Yeah, like that would work. He's pretty much public enemy number one in the Monkey House. No way would a self-respecting Monkey pay him anything."

To Gohan, however, that didn't sound like a bad idea actually. "Umm, Father?" he called, earning him said man's attention as he turned his head to look at him. "Can you come over here?"

Frowning, Lord Goku did so, Tao Pai Pai coolly following him with his eyes. "We were just talking," Gohan began, "and we were wondering if we could buy the information."

Lord Goku looked startled at that before he responded, "No self-respecting Monkey would pay him after what he has done!"

Trunks smirked at Dende. "See?"

"What about just offering?" Gohan tried again. "We need to know what he knows and if we put him into our service, we can order him to tell us and he'd have to."

That, apparently, inspired Trunks as his eyes lit up. "Or we could say we're paying him, he tells us what we want, and then we kill him when we get home! That's a great plan!"

Lord Goku raised an eyebrow at that.

Trunks stared at him for a moment before he realized its meaning. "Oh! I mean, we could say we will pay him, he tells us what we want to know, and then we kill him. That is a great plan."

"Much better. And that does merit thinking." The Monkey Lord was quiet as he pondered, his eyes looking to Gohan every so often. "It is worth a try," he said after awhile.

He then walked off, disappearing into one of the tents that comprised their camp. After awhile, he reappeared with a pouch in hand. Walking up to Tao Pai Pai, he once again took a knee, letting the pouch dangle from his hand. The assassin glanced at the bag curiously, but mostly kept his attention on the Monkey Lord.

"Tell me, assassin, if I were to buy your services, what would they entail?" Lord Goku inquired.

Confusion wrote itself onto Tao Pai Pai's face, along with most of the men around him. However, he recovered himself enough to ask, "That depends on what service you require."

"Your loyalty, for one."

"That is customary."

"And what of your loyalty to your previous employer?"

"That depends on the size of your payment."

"Say, equal to, or more?"

"Then I would say I have no prior employer."

Lord Goku tossed the bag at the assassin's feet. "Consider that a down payment. The rest of your fee will be given to you once we reach Vegeta."

Tao Pai Pai blinked his eyes. "You're serious about this?"

"Quite."

"Then what is the assignment?"

"Do you accept the terms?" Lord Goku pressed.

Tao Pai Pai looked to the bag at his feet, then back at the Monkey Lord. He then looked at the other Monkey guards, seeming to weigh his options before returning his sights to Lord Goku. "I accept."

"Then tell me who hired you to kill my son."

"I was hired by the Head of the Ribbon House."

Just about every head in the camp perked up at that, save for Lord Goku's. Rage flashed over his face just at the mention of that person. "Why?" he demanded harshly.

"I cannot say for sure, but it involved the assassination of the Head of the Demon House." Tao Pai Pai was silent for a moment before he continued, "If I had to say anything, it most likely involved keeping him silent. If everyone believed he killed Demon Head Hercule and he was unable to prove his innocence, then it would go unchallenged save for the Monkey House."

So this was about a cover up for the real killer. It seemed Lord Goku was of the same mind as he asked, "Who did kill Hercule?"

Tao Pai Pai grinned. It was that smile that told Gohan everything even before the answer came.

"I did, of course."

* * *

I got the idea for buying Tao Pai Pai's loyalty from a book series I'm rather fond of. In it, there's an assassin who was only loyal to whomever was paying him at the time. Whoever paid him more was who won his services. At one point, someone he was trying to poison captured, then hired him to kill his former employer. It was quite inspiring lol

To Zerolink100: Well, there were more men, but this was a battle of honor, so they were ordered to stand down. Not that Goku needed the help.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	29. Gang of Blue Men

It was another night, another camp. Another fire in which Gohan stared into. To say he was brooding would've been incorrect. He had plenty of time to do that after hearing Tao Pai Pai's confession. His immediate reaction had been numbness. Here was the man responsible for everything bad that had happened to him in the last year or so and he was now in the employ of his own people at his insistence.

There was a cruel irony to this.

Yet, Tao Pai Pai was only a hired sword. He had no allegiance to anyone but his own purse. Anyone could have been responsible for putting the knife into Hercule's back, it just so happened to be in this case it was this man.

At least the assassin had filled in the last few blanks for him. His plight, his solitude, everything ended up right at the doorstep of the Ribbon House. A part of Gohan felt he should have known about this. Even when he had been wander the Four Kingdoms, he had noticed there was a constant pressure in the Ribbon lands to find him. He had felt that more so than in the Demon Kingdom, the very place he was accused of his alleged crime.

They were the ones behind the assassination; they were the ones that had accused him and tried to kill him to make sure there was no dispute in their story. Yet, Gohan couldn't figure out why. What was the endgame of this?

The others were just as baffled by this as he was and Tao Pai Pai offered very little answers. He had only concerned himself with what he was supposed to do and how much he would be paid for it, not the why. Lord Goku had been furious at the news of the Ribbon House's involvement. Apparently there was some bad blood between them. Dende had been the one to inform him that it had been the Head of the Ribbon House, whom had been the Head Stewart at the time of his kidnapping by Mr. Piccolo, who had made the decision to call off the search for him. Relations had strained between the Monkey and Ribbon Houses after that affair.

Still, there had been plenty of time and opportunity for the Ribbon House to attack him since his return to the Monkey House. It wasn't like he was under constant guard since he had left to continue his vagabond ways.

There was also the matter of the Ribbon House ordering the murder of Demon Head Hercule. As far as he knew, the Demon House was trying to restore themselves to the status as one of the Four Main Houses. Hercule had been central to that restoration. In fact, the other houses—even the Monkey House—had been re-establishing relations with them. There was a puzzle piece missing here and Gohan wished he knew what it was.

Unfortunately, Tao Pai Pai didn't have that information either. As of now he only served as proof that he was the killer and that was it. He could point a finger at Ribbon House and say they were the ones responsible for all of this, but that was about it. That left Gohan feeling unsatisfied.

"You seem to be in a melancholy," a voice remarked. Looking away from the fire, Gohan saw Lord Goku taking a seat nearby.

The youth hadn't expected this. Aside form the guards keeping watch over Tao Pai Pai, the others had taken to their beds. Goten and Trunks had loudly proclaimed that they were fit enough to not have a bed time, then promptly passed out five minutes later. Lord Goku had seen them to their beds. Dende had then taken to his tent, leaving the dark-haired young man to his own devices.

"Am I?" Gohan responded before he shook his head. "Perhaps I am. I'm still trying to get my head around this."

"As am I." A silence fell over the two. "I feel as if there is one last thing to connect all of this," his father continued, "and I am not sure what it could be."

A smile flickered over Gohan's lips. It was funny that he wasn't the only one to feel this way. However, his thoughts drifted onto a different subject, one that he felt his father may find difficult. "You know, I've been thinking of more than this murder plot," he began. "One of the guards told me you were one of the best warriors in the Monkey House."

Lord Goku nodded his affirmation. "I am described as such."

"So that got me wondering. When Piccolo kidnapped me, he managed to escape despite your pursuit. I'm finding it hard to put those two together."

Lord Goku was quiet at that, looking into the fire with a faraway look on his face. "There was not a fight," he spoke quiet. "My brother and I tracked the demon for a couple days into the foothills at our border. Piccolo ambushed us in one of the mountain passes and wounded me." Then his voice took on a different, more appreciative tone. "I had long heard of stories of his skill with a sword. To this day I wish we could have crossed them. Perhaps we might have had it only been the two of us.

"However, my brother was there and Piccolo knew he could not take on two Monkey Lords at once. Tactically, he made the correct decision; it was still one that separated you from me."

Gohan mulled that over. Despite his question, he was not placing blame on anyone for what led to be his life. In fact, there was a part of him that preferred the aimless wandering of the road rather than the pageantry of the nobility. One offered security while the other offered freedom. It was a scale that was honestly tipped to the side of freedom.

Then there was the fact of his fondness for Mr. Piccolo. The green man had been a father to him, albeit reluctantly. It was something else he wouldn't have given up. However, after his death experience and return of his memory, Gohan found himself wanting some semblance of stability, something that a family could provide. Lord Goku was his father by blood and instantly offered this.

And it was obvious the day of his kidnapping still weighted heavily on the Monkey Lord's shoulders. Gohan suspected it was something that would stay with him until the end of his days.

"Since we are talking about ourselves," Lord Goku then spoke, causing Gohan to look at him. "What is your relation to this Videl?"

Heat began to glow from the youth's cheeks and it wasn't from being too close to the fire. Immediately, his eyes darted away to stare right into the dancing flames. "I-I'm not sure what you mean," he stammered.

A playful smile was on the man's lips. "It is my understanding you have traveled with this girl for some time. She was with you upon your arrival at Head House and she met up with you during your holiday in the Four Kingdoms. You were even with her when she was summoned to the Demon House."

"I guess you could say we're…close," Gohan said carefully.

That caused Lord Goku to raise an eyebrow. "You seem uncomfortable talking about this."

"I guess you could say I don't talk about my personal life much."

"So it is that way, huh?"

"Depends on what you mean 'that way'."

"Fine, keep your secrets. Then answer me this: if your roles were reversed, would you go into the Underworld for her?"

Gohan frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"It seems to me this girl cares greatly for you. She went to great lengths to save you, not to mention protect you. It is not often you see someone do the things she has. So my question: would you do the same for her?"

The first word that was on Gohan's lips was "Yes." However, he didn't say it. Instead he pondered his father's words. Did he feel the same for Videl as her action seem to indicate? He knew he was fond of her especially after all of their adventures together. In fact, he had done some pretty dumb things just to see her, such as allowing himself to be caught in Demon lands. So, would he go into Hell itself for her?

Gohan looked to his father's face. "Yeah, I believe I would. I did pretty much the same for Piccolo."

Lord Goku's eyes narrowed at that, but then he shook his head. "I must admit, I am not sure how I feel with you fraternizing with the Demon House after all that has happened. One does not let go of such much negativity in an instant." He sighed. "If we are to restore your courtship with her, we will need to petition the Head House."

"Huh? Why them?" Gohan asked in confusion.

"With the number of people in our group, it would be hard to go straight to the Demon House. Due to our history, it may be taken as some sort of invasion and deteriorate the strained relations further. With our knowledge of the Ribbon House and their tactics of late, you can expect they will claim as much."

"So we go to the Head House and have everyone gather outside of the castle there?"

"It is the wisest of courses. Remember, the Ribbon House is maneuvering much like we must. We currently have their weapon that can implicate them as long as we keep him paid. That will make life difficult for them as we unravel their conspiracy."

Gohan could feel his stomach sink. The plan had been to take Tao Pai Pai to the Demon House so that Videl could figure out the assassin's secrets. Presumably she was still waiting. However, after the excitement of capturing the assassins, Gohan had sought the confession out immediately. If the plan was changing, how would word get back to the princess?

"I guess you have a point," he said slowly. "But I promised to take Tao Pai Pai to the Demon House. If we do this…" he trailed off.

Lord Goku's frowned. "That was a foolish promise to make, especially with your current wanted status. As of right now, politics are taking center stage and we have to play by its rules. One mistake will undo us all."

His father was right. When it came to this political stuff, Gohan was largely out of his depth. It seemed the change in plans was necessary. Still, he needed to get word to Videl. The sooner she was present, the better he would feel.

The problem was who would deliver the message. Sure, they could send one of the guards, but with their present situation with the mercenary in their midst, they couldn't afford to pull one out of the rotation. Gohan himself couldn't go because of the previously stated reasons, not to mention staying around Lord Goku would at least give people pause if they attempted to arrest him. Goten and Trunks were out of the question considering their age.

If only there was someone they knew from the Demon House.

Someone, it could have been anyone.

It was a shame he didn't travel with such a person this entire time.

Sighing once more, Gohan let his eyes drift. He ended up looking towards the tents, first finding the one that Goten and Trunks were snoring in. There were a couple of empty ones and then there was Dende's. The little demon must have been uncomfortable since they joined up with the Monkey people. It honestly wasn't fair to him to keep him around on his account. In the morning he would make it right and send him back to the Demon lands. Yeah, that was a swell idea.

Now if only he could solve his messenger problem…

Then a figurative lightning bolt struck him. Dende! Home lands were in Demon! Videl was in the Demon capital! It was too good to be—

No, no, Dende's home wasn't anywhere near the capital. He couldn't ask the guy to go out of his way for him. Damn, he was right back where he started.

No wait, Dende said he was willing to serve him in any capacity! Yes! This could work! Of course, he'd ask the little demon first if he were willing to do such a task. One shouldn't abuse their friends after all.

"Would it be alright if we sent Dende to Dabura?" the young man asked.

"Do you think we can trust him?"

"You don't have to worry about Dende. He's very loyal to Videl. In fact, he was under orders from her to help me, though he said it'd be an honor and some other stuff. He's stuck by my side all this time; I think we can trust him."

Lord Goku leaned towards him. "Are you certain?"

"I am."

"You better be sure. I do not need to remind you what may happen if you are wrong."

Gohan hesitated for only a moment before he gave a sharp nod.

"Very well, we shall send him out at daybreak."

* * *

The one good thing about traveling with trained warriors was that everyone stayed out of your way.

The moment villagers or passerbyers caught sight of the armored squad of Monkey warriors, they immediately got out of their way, or looked away so as not to draw their attention. True, the anonymity was gone, but for once Gohan wasn't looking over his shoulder.

The tribe marched through one such village. Although many of its citizens peeked out of their houses in curiousity, they largely kept out of their way.

Gohan was towards the front of the group, Lord Goku at his side. Dende had left that morning, gracious to carry their message back to Dabura. Though he was hesitant at first, he was quite agreeable to their request.

Goten and Trunks were also with the two adult Monkeys. At first they had taken to a game of tag, which had them weaving between the guards and running around them. That had been much of the morning, but they had since lost their enthusiasm for the game. They were now walking boredly. They would have been whining, but Lord Goku had mentioned that they were just about the right age to begin their training in the ways of the Monkey House. The gist that Gohan got was that it involved a lot of manual labor and that was something neither child wanted anything to do with.

Which left Tao Pai Pai towards the center of their group. He was surrounded by the guards, still in restraints, but he carried himself confidently. He didn't seem to mind his current situation and was doing very little to make their traveling difficult. Maybe they really had swayed him to their side.

Unfortunately, the peace that had fallen onto them came to an end. As they reached the edge of the village, they were met was a large group of men. Their dirty clothes indicated they were not of the nobility and the greedy looks they had on their faces showed what was on their minds. A common characteristic amongst them all was their blue skin.

"Stand aside," Lord Goku called out as the tribe came to a stop. "You are blocking the path of a Monkey Lord."

"You're a long way from home, Monkey Lord." A rather buff man appeared, his long orange hair hanging down his back. Aside from his pants, he wore no shirt, but his hands played with a dagger. The daring look on his face seemed to mock the tribe of Monkeys. Gohan found himself staring right at the scar that ran across his nose.

Lord Goku was not amused. "I repeat, stand aside, or we will go through you."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll try," the man replied. "The thing is, you're in the company of a criminal." At this he stopped playing with his knife and held his arm up, pointing the blade right at Gohan. "If you leave him with us, I'd be fine with the rest of you moving on."

The Monkey Lord's face hardened. Though he lacked his orange armor, he had a dark blue chain mail shirt on his body. Stepping forward, he deliberately put himself between the blue-skinned man and Gohan. "He is under _my_ protection. This is your last chance to leave here with your lives."

"The men of Bojack have no fear of some pampered lordling and his babysitters," the man shot back. "And I, Bojack, will personally use your skull as my drinking cup tonight."

In an instant, the guards had drawn their swords, the sound of leather scraping against metal ringing out. Lord Goku had his own blade in hand. Then he tilted his head to Gohan and whispered, "Take Goten and Trunks and get away from here. Head towards the Monkey lands and we shall rejoin you along the way."

"Are you sure?" Gohan questioned, his body already tensing up as he unconsciously began reaching his hands to the young boys. "I can be of some help."

"I am sure you would be, but if harm were to come to the boys, this rift-raft will be the lesser of our worries."

"Alright, boys!" Bojack shouted. "Tonight we dine on Monkey meat!"

A loud roar rang out from Bojack's men as they all drew their own weapons. While they had swords, there were more crude weapons in their hands, such as clubs, chains, and even a large sledgehammer. Each blue-skinned man began running at the Monkey warriors.

Immediately, Gohan grabbed Goten and Trunks by their upper arms and practically swung them around, dragging them as he ran in the opposite direction. The two boys didn't even protest as they got their little legs beneath them and hauled butt with him.

Even though he had his order, Gohan couldn't help but glance at Tao Pai Pai as he ran by him. The assassin was still stoic, but his eyes were focused right on him, following him as he passed.

Then behind Gohan was the clashing of steel against steel and wood. Not bothering to look back, he urged the young princes to keep up with him, his hands tightly on their arms.

Unfortunately, their escape would not be so simple. A short ways down the path, the three found themselves skidding to a stop. Emerging from a side street were more of the blue-skinned men, all of them looking evilly at them.

"This way!" Trunks shouted, nearly jerking Gohan after him. Somehow the lavender-haired boy had grabbed onto his arm and his surprising strength yanked the youth after him. The way the princeling had in mind was actually one of the building, which he plowed right through the door, Gohan and Goten right behind him.

What was best described as a kitchen greeted the three. The entire place was made of wood aside from the fireplace off to the right. The room was narrow so there wasn't a lot of room to move around. However, wooden cages full with squawking chickens nearly deafened them.

In spite of this, they kept running, heading for a door on the other side of the room. Passing by a doorway, they saw the owner of the little house peeking his head out in surprise, switching to anger a moment later. "What are you doing in here?!" he bellowed after them after they had raced by. "Get out of my house you—"

And that's where he was cut off. Though they had reached the door, Gohan had peeked over his shoulder just in time to see the enraged man falling forward, a knife in his back and a line of Bojack's men giving chase,the first couple shoving the dying man out of their way.

Trunks shoved the door opened and the three exploded out into another street. Goten slammed the door behind them, an attempt to delay their pursuers. Still, the three ran straight for another house, barreling into it just as the blue-skinned men poured out of the other house and followed them.

Much like the first house, the room was narrow. The biggest difference was the fire place being on the left side of the room rather than the right and it had a cauldron bubbling with some sort of stew.

Immediately, Gohan shoved Goten in front of him, the young boy not arguing him as he ran on the heels of his little friend. In the meantime, Gohan slowed his pace to grab one of the metal pokers lying against the hearth of the fire. Turning his body to face the entrance, and crossing the poker over his body, the young man then swung it in a backswing, hitting the support beam with the poker. Due to years of use and low maintenance, the wooden beam snapped, dropping the cauldron down onto the fire.

Running again, he didn't stay to watch as the cauldron tipped forward due to the wood beneath it creating an uneven landing spot. The boiling stew poured all over the floor, spreading in all directions.

A moment later and a couple of Bojack's men ran right into the hot broth. Immediately they screamed as the heat of the fluid scorched right through their poor imitation for footwear. Even worse for them was their clumsy jumping to get out of the boiling broth, which only caused them to lose their footing and fall into it. Their screams became shrieks an instant later.

Again as they reached the back door, Gohan looked over his shoulder to see only two of their pursuers rolling around in the stew. The other men had slowed down and were even backing away from the encroaching broth so as not to suffer the same fate.

Bursting through the doorway, Gohan didn't bother shutting the door behind him. In fact, Trunks and Goten weren't running to the next house they saw, instead taking off the down the street. Surprisingly these little kids could run. Pumping his arms, poker in hand, Gohan ran after them.

Of course, these thugs didn't just follow them blinding into each house. A couple buildings down there was a separation between two houses, forming a very narrow alleyway. In fact, there were two barrels side by side crammed into the space. And just as they passed it, one of the blue-skinned mean came charging at them, leaping up to get a foot on top of the barrels and springing off of them.

The flying man yelled as he flew towards them, Gohan twisting his body to meet him and the wicked-looking knife he had drawn back. Seeing the blade slicing towards him, Gohan swung the poker up, blocking the dagger and pushing it to a side all in one swing. Going for the backswing, the young man hit his attacker in the face.

Due to the poker have a curved hook towards it in, it just so happened the hook dug right into the man's face, causing him to scream as a chunk of his check was ripped out. Immediately, his hands went to cradle his injured face.

Seeing as he was more content to hold his head then give chance, Gohan stumbled away until he was once again running full-speed after the two Monkey princes.

"Gohan, this way!" Goten shouted at him from further up. He was standing at the mouth of an alleyway much like their last attacker had exited. Racing towards it, Goten only moved in once he was certain Gohan was heading their way. Bringing his arms up, Gohan used them to brace himself as he nearly crashed into the wall, pushing himself away from it as he abruptly changed directions. Checking behind him just before he did so, he caught sight of Bojack's men flooding into the street from just about everywhere.

Up ahead, he saw Goten reaching Trunks at the end of the alley, the little prince taking off running again. Further up ahead, Gohan could make out the sight of trees—a forest. "Head for the trees!" he shouted after them, his voice echoing in the alley. Neither boy answered him, but they did shoot across the next street, heading into another alley.

Gohan did the same as he dashed out into the open air. He caught sight of some of the citizenry watching the three running Monkeys, but in the distance he saw what appeared to be three or four Monkey guards, their swords swinging as they fought the blue-skinned gang.

Entering the next alley, the young man saw he was catching up to the boy. If they could reach the forest, they could potentially find a place to hide, if not use it for cover as they fled their pursuers. It was unfortunate that more seemed to be coming out of the woodwork, but they couldn't stay in this town, not with so many men after his head.

Lowering his head, he just kept running.

* * *

To Zerolink100: There is some history. It was a short scene in the first DQZ story.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	30. Flight Through the Forest

It wasn't all that long ago that Gohan found himself running through the woods. In fact, it was just a couple days ago. The only difference this time, however, was that he had no back-up and the people he was running with were children.

Trunks and Goten were getting tired. Though they were normally hyperactive balls of energy, they had never had to run for their lives. Most of their games were done on pretty level ground, so they were unused to the strain of climbing and dropping down uneven hills.

Even worse, many of Bojack's underlings had caught up with them. In fact, one was running right at Gohan, a crude club held high. The young man had opted to holding his ground, tightly clutching the fire poker in his hands. Patiently he waited, the voice of Mr. Piccolo soothingly guiding him as his opponent approached.

At the last minute, he spun to a side, avoiding the downward swing of the club. Continuing to spin, he swung the poker, the metal rod slamming into the back of the man's skull. The man dropped hard to the ground, his face hitting a tree root, which effectively knocked him out, assuming he wasn't already unconscious before he had hit the root.

Eyeing two more thugs closing in on him, Gohan choose to run again, moving over the top of a hill and clumsily running down it, the poker held out from his body for balance. Towards the bottom of the hill, he saw Trunks and Goten, the two scrambling over a log. They then headed towards a couple trees off to their right.

Now he was presented with a choice. Either he angled his path to intercept the two, or he followed their trail. While he wanted to keep them within sight of him, if he caught up to them too quickly, so would the guys following them. Taking the longer way, he'd at least delay them reaching the kids.

Gohan knew what he'd do the moment he though of his options.

Purposefully he began to slow his pace. Already he could hear his pursuers catching up to him, their pounding feet creating a loud racket as they ran.

They caught up to Gohan at the bottom of the hill. It was an open area, a good place to fight someone, two as long as they were in front of you. Spinning around on his feet, Gohan barely had his poker at his ready position when the two men reached him. One was wielding two daggers, one in each hand, while the other actually carried a shovel.

The one with the shovel, fortunately, reached him first, swinging it at Gohan's head. The young man ducked the shovel, which moved right in front of the man with the daggers, forcing him to pull up lest he get hit by it.

Practically kneeling, the dark-haired youth slammed the poker against the side of the man's knee, causing it to turn at an unnatural angle. The man screamed as he dropped one hand to his knee, his other leg buckling so that his body could adjust to his unusual stance. Springing back up, Gohan arched the poker up and then swung it down, bashing his foe on top of his head.

Immediately, the man seemed to straightened up in response to the blow. However, his face was dazed and he slowly began to lean forward. By then, his friend had danced around him, yelling as he threw one of his daggers at the young man at point-blank range.

Gohan yelped as he leaned backwards and twisted his body to a side, narrowly avoiding the flying knife. Immediately, he pushed his arms out, his poker moving right into the path of the dagger the man was using to stab him with. Metal clashed against steel, but Gohan was successful in blocking the most likely fatal stabbing.

Leaning up so that he had better posture, he couldn't help but noticed the blue-skinned man in front of him had his legs spread out wide. With an angry snarl, the man pulled his knife back and made to thrust it again.

Immediately, Gohan swung his leg up, kicking the man right in the crotch. For an instant the world froze, a silent scream in the man's eyes. Then his legs collapsed on him and he dropped the knife, both of his hands clutching at his injured manparts as he ended up on his knees.

Again, Gohan was on the attack, swinging his poker. He didn't hit the dagger man though, the metal rod colliding with the head of the man with the shovel. Bouncing off, Gohan began swinging the poker back and forth over and over, his weapon hitting the men in the side of the face one after the other until they both fell to the ground.

Panting, the youth stared down at his fallen opponents before he slowly began to walk away from them. While he knew he'd lose some ground on Goten and Trunks, it was necessary. Hopefully they hid somewhere when they noticed he wasn't right behind them. Turning around, he began his trek to the log he had seen them climb over, taking a right through a few trees.

Gohan found himself climbing a small hill, his eyes darting to the ground and up over and over. He was able to make out the broken leaves and sticks on the forest floor, a sign of the kids' feet stomping on anything and everything they had come across.

Once he reached the top, the young man immediately saw the two boys. However, their bodies were contorted into unnatural poses. It was almost as if they were in mid-run, but then for some reason were trying to back off all at the same time. "I still can't move, Trunks," he heard Goten whine.

"Keep trying," Trunks told him in the same strained tone.

"Trunks, Goten, what's going on?" Gohan demanded.

"Don't come any closer!" Gohan was surprised by the steel in Trunks' voice that he actually stopped in his tracks. Because of the position of their heads, he could just make out both boys trying to look at him from the corner of their eyes.

There was something not right about this. Eyes darting from side to side, Gohan couldn't figure out what it was. However, he didn't move a single step forward or back. Assuming this was some sort of trap, if he went in any direction he might entangle himself in whatever had caught the boys. So while he wasn't caught, he was effectively stuck.

"Now, now, that's a good boy," a voice called out. Snapping his head up, he saw two blue-skinned men up in a rather large tree up ahead. One had orange hair that stood straight up from his head and facial hair surrounding his mouth. The other had a turban on his head and he was smirking down on them.

"You've given us a good chase," the one with the turban spoke, "but this is the end of the line."

Gohan clutched the poker tightly, moving it between him and these new guys. "I don't know what you're doing, but let them go," he ordered.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the one with the beard said. "Zangya!" he then called out.

In answer, a rather striking woman moved out from behind the tree. A mass of curly orange hair fell behind her head, her blue eyes filled with mirth. Unlike the two men, her hands were held out in front of her. Narrowing his eyes, Gohan couldn't sworn he saw what looked like strings emerging from her finger tips.

Slowly, he followed the strings until he found them wrapped around Goten and Trunks. He held back a groan. No wonder they couldn't move, they were ensnared in a magical spell and this Zangya woman seemed to be the one causing it.

Damn magic, it was something he really didn't need right now.

That's when the two in the tree dropped off the branches they stood on, landing solidly on the ground. "You're the one we want," the one in the turban spoke again. "These boys mean nothing, so if you refuse to cooperate, we _will_ kill them."

"I wouldn't do that," Gohan responded. "Those two kids there aren't just normal people. They're princes right out of the Monkey House. If you kill them, you'll have the entire House on top of your heads."

"Right, like we wouldn't know to hide the bodies," the one with the beard retorted.

"So? There are Monkey Warriors in that village we left. Do you honestly think your friends can kill them all? All it takes is for one of them to escape and make it to Vegeta. They'll know we were here and the moment they suspect we're dead, they will kill every single last one of you."

That got their attention. "He might be right, Bujin," the bearded one said.

"That just means we go to Plan B," Bujin replied. He then held up his hand, aiming it right at Gohan.

Immediately, the youth knew what would happen. While he knew he had little to no magical ability, he did know the basics. In an instant, a white glow emanated from him, surrounding his entire body. A second later, the sound of static reached his ears, his magic shield shredding the magic threads.

Man, was he making Mr Piccolo proud today, or what!

That caused all three of Bojack's men to widen their eyes. "I didn't know he knew magic," Zangya said.

Bujin's face scowled. "That means we have to do this the hard way—Bido."

Bido smirked widely, raising his hands up and clasping one hand over the other. The sound of his knuckles cracking was loud. "I just love the hard way."

And then Bido charged. He ran right between Goten and Trunks, pulling an arm back before throwing his punch.

Gohan darted to his right, dodging the punch successfully. Drawing back the poker, he then swung it at Bido, aiming for his head.

Bido easily caught the metal rod with his hand, his fingers wrapping around the iron rod, widening his grin before jerking his arm backwards. Not expecting the bearded man to block him that way, Gohan was unprepared as the poker was ripped out of his hands, leaving him stumbling forward a step.

This left him wide open as Bido them drove his fist forward, slamming his poker-gripping hand right into into the young man face. Stars exploded in Gohan's vision as he went stumbling backwards. Because of the leaves on the ground, his feet couldn't find a hold to stabilize him. It wasn't until his back collided with a tree that he did stop.

Blinking his eyes rapidly, Gohan shook his head to rid himself of his daze. The moment he could see, his eyes widened before he ducked to a side, narrowly dodging Bido's next punch, which rammed right into the tree he had been leaning against. Bark crunched against the man's knuckles.

Scrambling, Gohan tried to put as much distance as he could between him and Bido, who merely had his head turned to follow him. As it turned out, that was the wrong way for him to be looking as Bujin intercepted him. The turban-wearing man had used his comrade as a distraction to close the distance between him and the youth. Leaping into the air, he swung a leg, landing a kick to the side of Gohan's face, causing his head to snap to a side. In fact, the force of the blow knocked him clear off his feet, sending him flying a short distance away before he crashed back onto the ground.

 _Oh, this is not going so well._ Lying there for a moment, the youth slowly lifted his head up in time to see Bido coming to stand next to Bujin, the bearded man tossing away the poker somewhere behind them.

This was bad. It was pretty clear that he was outmatched here. Somehow, someway, Gohan needed to grab the two boys and get them out of here. Unfortunately, brute force was not going to be the answer, not that he had much of that to begin with. His rudimentary training with Piccolo had gotten him through some tough spots as of late, but it wasn't enough to get away from the obstacle these three people represented.

Still, that didn't mean he was completely out of options.

Gingerly, Gohan got back onto his feet. Feeling something thick gathering in his mouth, he spat it out, seeing blood decorate the folliage in front of him. Staring at it for a moment, he then looked up to the two blue-skinned men.

"He's got a little more spunk in him," Bido commented with a grin.

"But not much else," Bujin finished disapprovingly.

Gohan steeled his features. This was a now-or-never gambit, one that he had promised to use as a last resort. This was that time.

"RUN AWAY!"

In an instant, Gohan took off running to his left. Moving behind the tree that Bido had punched early, he then turned to head right for Goten and Trunks. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the surprised looks of Bujin and Bido, their heads turning as if in slow motion to follow him.

Even Zangya seemed to have been caught off guard as she saw what must have looked like a blur running towards her. However, Gohan knew that magical traps had a tendency to capture anything that ran into it, sometimes even touch it. It was because of this that he dropped to the ground with his legs extended in front of him, sliding across leaves and grass. Shooting his hands up, he grabbed Goten and Trunks by the back of the collars and pulled them down as he passed by, dragging them behind him.

The slide had been meant to go underneath Zangya's paralyzing spell. As it turned out, Gohan had aimed himself right at the woman, and the momentum of his escape spell carried him right up to her. His feet collided with her, knocking her clear off her feet, Gohan and the two boys sliding right underneath her airborne form.

In an instant, Gohan was back on his feet and he was running again. The woods around him blurred as he charged forward, kicking up dirt, blades of grass, and leaves in his wake.

Plunging down a slope, he noticed a creek running off to his left, which he turned towards. He jumped it easily, landing on the other side, which led up another hill. Reaching the top, he was looking for his next path when something became tangled up with his legs.

The next thing Gohan knew, his face was making a rather long trench in the ground. It seemed to last forever, but thankfully it did come to an end. Lying on the ground, he wanted the pain in his face to go away, but ultimately breathing required that he turn his head.

"Uggh," he moaned as he looked to his left. Through a cracked eye, he saw Goten lying next to him, and curiously enough, a rather big stick—possibly a broken branch—sticking out from between his own legs. _Huh, so that's what I tripped over._

"Let's not do that again," Trunks groaned next to him. "I think I know what it's like to be a dog's chew toy."

Surprisingly enough, Goten actually giggled. "Hey, let's do it again! Especially that last part!"

"I'm glad you liked that part," Gohan said. "But I don't think I'm up for another go."

"Why not?"

The sound of leaves crunching filled their ears. "Nice shot, Bido," they heard Bujin compliment.

It hit Gohan a second later. Apparently Bido had managed to accurately throw the thick branch at him, hitting his legs and tripping him up. Damn, he hadn't expected that.

And then he felt something touch him. It was a gentle caress at first, but then everything froze. He couldn't move his arms, his legs, even his head was frozen. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zangya, one hand raised with the faint trace of strings extending from it.

They were caught.

"Now then, it's time to take our little rabbits to Bojack," Bujin said. "Bido, you'll have to do the heavy lifting."

"I do that anyways," Bido grumbled. His smirk was gone, any enjoyment he was getting out of this situation vanishing with the wind.

Though his body couldn't move, Gohan's mind was fully active. He knew if he summoned his magic shield, he could rid himself of Zangya's paralysis spell. Whether he could extend the shield to Goten and Trunks, however, was a different matter. Due to his lack of magical...let's call it talent...coupled with his lack of use of the very few spells he did know, he highly doubted he could extend the shield to the two kids without exhausting himself. Though they would have been rid of the spell, Gohan wouldn't have any energy to make another escape and he highly doubted the two boys could fight in his stead, not against these guys.

Damn it, they were so screwed.

Bido moved to stand next to Gohan. With a gloved hand, he reached down to grab the young man by the back of his shirt in order to pick him up. Because his head just happened to be looking at the bearded man, Gohan saw the tip of a dagger slide through the front of his throat.

For moment, no one moved. Bujin and Zangya just stared at their comrade, whom stood frozen. Bido's eyes were wide, red veins becoming visible in the whites of his eyeballs, before he made a gargled gasp, blood dripping out of his mouth. He then dropped to his knees before falling over backwards.

And with Bido's body out of the way, Gohan saw Tao Pai Pai standing a short distance away, his arms behind his back, and coolly gazing at the scene before him.

"Who the hell are you?!" Bujin roared, his eyes burning with rage. His body moved into an offensive stance, his hands clenching into fists as he faced the assassin.

Tao Pai Pai ignored him. "My, my, my, you've certain made it quite far," he remarked, Gohan getting the sense the man was talking to him rather than his blue-skinned captors. "I expected no less from you, though I do find your current state somewhat disappointing. Perhaps I should have used a paralysis spell myself."

Bujin then placed himself right between Gohan and Tao Pai Pai. "I don't know who you think you are and I don't care. You messed with the wrong people."

Tao Pai Pai shifted his attention to Bujin. "Have I now?" he finally addressed him.

Suddenly, Bujin threw a hand up, firing the nearly-invisible strands of his paralysis spell. They stood no chance, however, as Tao Pai Pai leaped high into the air, dodging the strands easily.

Before anyone could move, the mercenary had tilted his body forward so that his feet could be just above his body. As if he had planned it all along, his feet met the underside of a large tree branch and he immediately sprang off of it, soaring through the air above everyone. His flight began to arch downward, the assassin allowing himself to fall headfirst to the ground between Gohan and Bujin.

Then his arm lashed out like a snake. In midair, he delivered a chop to the blue-skinned man's neck, the man crying out as he stumbled forward. Despite how close he was to the ground, Tao Pai Pai still managed to flip himself so that he landed on his feet, his legs crouching beneath him.

His head then jerked right towards Zangya, his braid whipping around behind his head. Shooting a hand up, he extended one finger, pointing it right at the woman. "Dodon!" he shouted and a thin beam fired from his finger tip.

Zangya stood no chance. Before she could move, or even breathe, the beam struck her right between the eyes, leaving a hole that went through one side of her skull and out the other in its wake. There was a look of shock on the woman's face, her mouth opened but unable to let out a scream that was just at her lips. Like Bido before her, she dropped to the ground lifelessly.

Instantly, Gohan felt feeling return to his body. He blinked his eyes in bewilderment for a moment before he launched himself into action. Holding tightly onto Goten and Trunks' collars, he rolled to one side, lifting Goten right off the ground as he did so only to bring him down on the same side, only with the older man on his back.

"You won't get away with this!" Bujin cried out, aiming his hand right at the assassin again. This time, Tao Pai Pai seemed to slide over the ground, not even making a sound as his feet moved across dirt, leaves, and sticks. He turned his body the whole way until he stood side to side with the turban-wearing man. In a flash, he shot his arm up, ramming his elbow right into the side of Bujin's head, knocking him off his feet and to the ground next to Bido.

For whatever reason, Gohan found himself spellbound by this entirely one-sided fight. Everything in him screamed for him to run, to get as far away as he could, yet his body didn't cooperate. Perhaps, deep down, he knew that no matter who won this fight, the winner would track him down easily enough.

Shaking off the blow, Bujin snarled at his foe. One hand went to the dagger still embedded in Bido's throat, grabbing the hilt, and pulling it out. Getting back to his feet, he held the blood-dripping blade in front of him. "You die!" he screamed before running all-out at the mercenary.

Tao Pai Pai watched calmly as the charging Bujin closed the distance between them. When Bujin made to stab him with the knife, his hands went into action. With practiced ease, one hand went just above Bujin's elbow while the other one struck the blue-skinned man's hand. The hit caused Bujin's arm to go up, only to be stopped by Tao Pai Pai other hand as he pulled down on the blue man's hand; this resulted in the arm bending at the elbow and Bujin losing his grip on the knife.

High into the air, the dagger flew, slowly rotating end over end. Everyone's eyes were glued onto the small blade, watching as it began to fall back down to the two combatants.

In a flash, Tao Pai Pai removed his hand from his foe's elbow and snatched the dagger out of mid-air, then just as quickly drove the knife into Bujin's ear, burying it into his skull. Bujin's body stiffened, his eyes rolling back into his head as trails of blood began to leak out of his ear, eyes, and mouth. Then, like his friends before him, he collapsed to the ground in a heap.

"Now, that was some nice exercise," Tao Pai Pai remarked before he turned to face the three Monkey princes, his arms moving to rest behind his back. "Let's return you to your Lord. I expect he is waiting for us by now."

Those words shocked Gohan out of his daze. "Huh? Take us back?"

"Yes, that is what I said."

"But I thought you were trying to kill me."

For once, Tao Pai Pai moved a hand, not to kill, but to wave the youth's words away. "Please, I am a professional. Your Lord has bought my services and he told me to retrieve you. While he never mentioned to bring you back dead or alive, I'm giving you the option to either walk your way back, or be carried back as a corpse. I really don't care which you choose."

Slowly, Gohan stood up. He must have let go of Goten and Trunks at some point because he didn't feel their shirts in his hands. Also, they made quite a bit of racket getting to their feet, leaves being tossed in every which direction.

However, the two boys did keep behind the young man. They clearly knew Tao Pai Pai was bad news and they weren't going to give him the chance to hurt them, not when there was a convenient human shield available.

"Come on, come on, I don't have all day," the assassin snapped.

"Yes, Sir!" Gohan immediately responded before he spun on his heels and began walking. Goten and Trunks were hot on his heels.

"Ehem."

That caused the three to slow to a stop, looking at Tao Pai Pai with a mix of confusion and worry. The man merely stared at them impassively before he pointed a finger in the opposite direction in which they were going. "The village is that way."

"Oh, thank you."

* * *

To Zerolink100: That's 40+ chapters, which is a whole lot to read in one sitting. Things are bound to get forgotten.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	31. Before the Head Stewart

In spite of the chase through the village, Lord Goku and his men were quite efficient at containing collateral damage. The battle between the Monkey Warriors and Bojack's gang had only damaged the first row of buildings and none further.

However, the area was covered in bodies. As Gohan suspected, Bojack's men were ruffians and thugs, none of which were of capable enough to take on a trained warrior. There were a couple of casualties on the Monkey side, but for the most part it was blue-skinned men and women that were freshly-made corpses.

That wasn't to say all of them were dead. A small group had survived, Bojack included. They were all tied up and forced to kneel on the ground. Most hung their heads in defeat, but Bojack was openly glaring at Lord Goku. His upper body had red gashes marring his physique—in fact, because he was still alive, Gohan felt that his father had perhaps toyed with the man before apprehending him.

As Gohan's small group neared his brethren, one of the guards caught sight of them and immediately began to spread word. "Lord Goku, the princes have been returned."

Immediately, Lord Goku emerged from the gathering of Monkeys, looking at the boys with a critical eye. As they approached him, the Monkey Lord's eyes fell onto Tao Pai Pai. "I take it they are well?"

"A little roughed up, but nothing they can't forget," the assassin reported blandly. "Anything else you require of me?"

"Not for the time being." Lord Goku returned his attention to his princelings. "You appear well."

Gohan nodded. "We escaped into the woods, only for a few of Bojack's men to catch us. They had us in a paralysis spell before Tao Pai Pai saved us."

"It would seem it was wise to pay him," his father mused. "Unfortunately, we must deal with our new prisoners."

"Can't we just turn them over to the authorities?"

"That is the right thing to do, but there is a distinct lack of such authority in this place. I would wager Bojack had something to do with that."

Well, that was a problem. "We could take them to a jail," the young man suggested.

"Unfortunately, we do not have the supplies necessary to ensure their well-being. A few of our own were slain in the conflict, so our man-power is also reduced. It pains me to say it, but we are in no shape to do what is required of us."

"There is another option," Tao Pai Pai spoke then. "If you can't keep them alive, then it would be much easier to dispose of them."

Though it was a suggestion, just hearing it said made Gohan's stomach churn. These men had surrendered; it wouldn't be right to execute them after that. It seemed Lord Goku was in agreement with him as he shook his head. "The rules of war dictate that we accommodate prisoners. I will not order them hanged just because it is convenient."

"How respectable of you," Tao Pai Pai drawled. "I highly doubt these prisoners of yours offered the same 'accommodations' to the ones they captured. Turnabout is fair play and I can assure you that if the situation was in reverse, these punks would be thinking of new and interesting ways to kill every single one of your men. You they might keep alive because your life has value, but not of your men."

Lord Goku's eyes narrowed. "What makes you say that?"

"I know the type, your lordship. Unlike you, who has lived in the lap of luxury, I deal with these pissants all the time. They hold grudges far into the future and go out of their way to make life hard for others. They are parasites that offer no real value to society."

"And you do?"

"Naturally."

It was then that Bojack piped up. "You better kill me if you know what's good for ya. I promise you that I won't rest until I've ripped out your entrails and drank your blood from your skull."

Coolly, Lord Goku and Tao Pai Pai stared at the man. "I see he's proven my point," the assassin commented dryly.

"Gohan," his father called out then. "I want you and the boys to go on ahead. There are some hard decisions that need to be made here."

"You're not going to kill them, are you?" Gohan demanded, a feeling of dread welling up in his stomach.

Lord Goku turned to look at him. There was a pained look in his eyes despite the stoic expression on his face. "Not if I can help it. Regardless, you cannot linger here. You need to continue onto the Head House; the sooner, the better. I will catch up with you before your arrival, of that you can be certain. A certain understanding needs to be obtained here and an example made. None of these concern you."

Gohan wasn't sure what to make of this. Deep down, he felt something bad was going to happen. If he turned away from it, it would haunt him for as long as he lived. On the other hand, he couldn't stay here either. His father was trying to make the best decision in an unfortunate circumstance and the young man felt that he wouldn't be able to look at the man the same afterwords.

"Gohan, c'mon." The youth felt his hand being pulled, causing him to look down at Goten. His face was full of worry; it wasn't clear if he understood what was going on, but his next words indicated what he was worried about. "We need to get your out of here. I don't want you getting into more trouble."

"Yeah, Gohan," Trunks agreed. "If someone sees you here, they'll probably think you did it. Before you now it, they'll think you kidnapped yourself instead of that funny-looking green guy. They'll do it too—don't think I haven't seen it before."

There was something absurd said there, but Gohan could appreciate the concern. A weak smile appeared on his face. "Okay, guys, let's go."

It wasn't the proudest decision he had made and he prayed it wouldn't be one he'd regret.

* * *

The journey to the Head House had mostly been silent. There was a tension ever since the fight with Bojack. Not knowing what happened after he'd been ordered to leave gnawed at Gohan's mind. Not one word had been mentioned of its aftermath and not one question asked about it.

The campfire talks had also been quiet. No longer did Gohan find himself talking to his father, even about the murder accusations. Goten and Trunks did their best to entertain everyone, but they would burn out their energy and put themselves right into bed.

Of course, the nights didn't always go uninterrupted.

Laying in his tent, Gohan had been on the verge of sleep. His eyes were heavy, his breathing was slowing down, and his mind felt dull. He would've fallen asleep too had something not settled onto his face.

Whatever it was, it suddenly made breathing hard. Gohan felt it was hairy, not to mention the little pin-pricks he felt on the sides of his face. His face twisted into a frown as he reached up and grabbed at something small, round, and definitely furry.

 _"Unhand me, Arch-Enemy!"_

The high-pitched voice awoken Gohan fully, the young man finding himself holding little Sharpner above his face. The guinea pig was squirming in his grasp, his little hands and feet frantically clawing in the air. _"I will smother you in your sleep!"_ he cried out.

"What are you doing, Sharpner?" Gohan asked exasperatedly. Seriously, when did this guy give up?

 _"What does it look like, villain? I am_ trying _to kill you. Now let me go so I can continue choking the life out of you!"_

"How did you get out of your shackles?"

 _"There is nothing in this world that can keep me chained up! Unhand me, you vile fiend!"_

The young man sighed. He then sat up in his makeshift bed, holding Sharpner out in front of him. "You seriously have to stop this," he warned the blond guinea pig.

 _"Never! It is a hero's duty to defeat villains! You should know that after all the time we've been together!"_

"And you should know I'm not capable of assassinating another person."

 _"Your words will not fool me."_ Sharpner looked indignant, or at least as much as a guinea pig's face would let him. _"You were bad news from the first day I met you. I helped you escape, remember?"_

In all honesty, what Sharpner was referencing was so long ago, Gohan barely recalled it. He had been thrown in a cage for some reason or another and the blond man had busted him out. Of course, with Sharpner's involvement, they had been chased out of the village. That had been simpler times.

Faintly, Gohan wondered how the two of them could have traveled together as long as they did and ended up with one of them trying to kill the other. Sure, there had been times he had wished they weren't together, but never had Gohan wanted anything bad to befall the guy. Only the women wanted that.

"There has to be someway we can get passed this," the young man said quietly. "If you keep up with your behavior, I'm gonna have to lock you up again."

 _"Just try it, you little girl. Revenge will be mine!"_

That was when a shadow appeared against the flap of the tent. "Prince Gohan?" a voice called out, one the dark-haired youth recognized as belonging to one of the guards. "I overheard your voice on my patrol. Is everything alright?"

Gohan glanced to the still-struggling Sharpner. "Yeah, everything's fine. The guinea pig managed to get free of his restraints, though."

The flap was pulled back and the guard stuck his head in. "I can take care of that, your highness," he offered.

 _"I swear to Kami above, you will rue this day!"_ Sharpner screamed as Gohan handed him over to the guard. _"Just you wait, one day when you least expect it I will be there to drive my dagger into your back. You haven't seen the last of me!"_

Yes, yes, Gohan had the feeling that as long as he lived, he would never have Shaprner out of his life.

For some reason he found that thought annoying.

* * *

It took several days, but eventually the group reached the capital city. Gohan gazed at the familiar sight of the walled city with its castle extending out from its center. Unlike his previous visits, the young man felt some apprehension at the sight.

"Do not falter," Lord Goku said quietly to him, startling the youth out of his daze. "You have your people to protect you this time. No harm will come to you."

"I know," Gohan replied just as softly. "I didn't think I'd be coming back to this place. The last time I had an idea of what could happen. Now though, I'm not so sure."

"I will ensure you will have your say; this I swear to you."

The young man knew his father was trying to be conforting and he appreciated the effort. Still, it would have been nice to know what to expect. Would they try to meet with the Head Stewart? Surely, Roshi had returned from his vacation in his homelands by now. Though he was eccentric, he was at least willing to listen before making a judgement. Though for some reason, he felt there was something not right with that thought, as if he had forgotten something.

Ugh, amnesia was a killer on his memory.

With a sigh, Gohan marched towards the city, surrounded by the guards. There was a seriousness to everyone that even Goten and Trunks were subdued.

Glancing out of the corner of his eye, the young man caught sight of Tao Pai Pai. Ever since the fight with Bojack, the mercenary had been left unrestrained. It had set him ill at ease, but the man had proven that once bought, he stayed bought until a better offer came. Considering they had yet to meet such a person, there hadn't been an issue.

They reached the city wall later that morning. Upon seeing the city guard at the drawbridge, Gohan instinctively made to hide his face, only for Lord Goku to step forward. With two guards trailing him, his father marched right up to the guards, who immediately recognized him. Gohan was too far away to hear what was said, but whatever words had been exchanged resulted in two of the city guardsmen to appear. They saluted Lord Goku before walking onto the street of the capital city, the Monkey Lord following them with his own men behind him. The rest of them filed in right after. Amazingly enough, no one said a word to Gohan, though he did notice the man his father spoke to watch him as he passed by.

In fact, the walk up to the castle had gone by uneventfully. The citizens didn't seem to care for them and any patrols merely stepped out of their way. Once they reached the castle gate, they were admitted quickly and soon the front entrance was open for them.

The familiar corridor beyond the castle door appeared before Gohan's eyes. It hadn't changed much visually in the months he hadn't been here, mostly because it appeared to be at the start of such change. There was a noticeable difference in activity. Servants bustled about, cleaning and redecorating the halls. Carpet was being exchanged from a deep red to a dark blue; paintings were removed from walls, either to be moved elsewhere or replaced by something else. Their group had to be careful not to get in the way of the workers as they labored.

"What's going on here?" the young man spoke out loud, not really expecting a response.

He got one anyways. "It seems we've arrived in time for the change of the guard," Tao Pai Pai said.

Looking to the assassin, Gohan couldn't help but inquire, "What does that mean?"

Tao Pai Pai glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "A new Head Stewart is about to be sworn in. As such, the new Head Stewart orders a redecoration of the castle to fit in line with their tastes."

A sinking feeling filled Gohan's gut. He had been expecting—hoping—to run into Roshi here, not some new Stewart. For all he knew, he was walking right to the very people that wanted his head on a pike. No wonder he had felt something was wrong earlier. Immediately, he picked up his pace to catch up with his father.

"Father," he spoke, a hint of his growing panic in his voice. "I don't think I can come here. There's—"

Lord Goku immediately interrupted him. "I have already told you, no harm will come to you." The Monkey Lord looked over his shoulder at the youth. "I am your champion and if anyone tries to harm you in any way, I will defend you even at the cost of my station. Do you understand?"

Slowly, Gohan nodded his acknowledgement. "Sorry, it's just that I heard there's a new Head Stewart and I have no idea what to expect anymore."

"I had forgotten that would be occurring as well. However, I think we shall find that it may play into our advantage."

"How so?"

Mirth twinkled in Lord Goku's eyes. "Wait and see."

They reached the inner sanctum soon after, the city guards playing as their guide. The guards stationed outside of the throne room narrowed their eyes in suspicion, but allowed them entry into the room once the city guard explained their purpose.

Unlike the hallways, the throne room remained untouched save from a new banner that hung from the wall behind the throne itself. Seated in the large chair was a stern-looking man, his hair dark and spiky. His face didn't so much as twitch upon seeing their group enter. Vaguely, Gohan felt as if he had seen the man before.

"Dad!" Trunks exclaimed before he took off running towards the man. The little boy came to a stop right in front of the man, practically hopping where he stood. "I didn't know you'd be here!"

Trunks' father's eyes narrowed. It took a moment before Trunks immediately went ramrod straight. "I mean," he fumbled for a moment before repeating, "I did not know you would be here, father."

"It is good to see those teachers of yours are not a complete waste of time," the new Head Stewart spoke, causing Trunks to cringe. "I must say I am surprised to see you. Your mother is frantic because of you."

"Aww, man."

The Head Stewart's eyes then turned to Lord Goku. "Do you mind explaining to me why my son is with you?"

Lord Goku didn't look the least bit fazed. "He stowaway with my son as I was leaving Vegeta, Head Stewart Vegeta. I did not realize he was with us until we had left the kingdom."

"How very unobservant of you. I suppose you know your own wife is tearing the city apart."

"I imagine she would be."

That's when Lord Vegeta's gaze turned to Gohan. "I see you have brought your entire brood." His eyes then narrowed. "One of whom is a wanted man."

Immediately, the castle guards reached for their swords; they didn't draw them, but one word or look would cause a lot of bloodshed in an instant. Already, Gohan felt that perhaps he had made a mistake in coming here.

"His alleged crime is false," Lord Goku immediately replied. "We have come here to reveal a conspiracy that affects all four houses."

"Is that so?" Head Stewart Vegeta leaned forward in his chair, his hands moving in front of his face as they clasped together. "And what possible story do you have in your possession?"

"As you are aware of, the Head of the Demon House was assassinated a year ago. At the time, my son was accused of the crime—and wrongly so. In the last month we have come across evidence that proves his innocence and implicates one of the Higher Houses as the culprit."

"What is this proof?"

At this, Lord Goku gestured to Tao Pai Pai. "We have brought the very man who carried out the assassination."

Vegeta's attention immediately went to the mercenary. "You brought an alleged assassin before me without restraints?" he growled lowly.

"He is of no threat, your highness."

"You idiot. Even if he was not a threat, you are accusing him of murder and you do not have any semblance of a restraint," Vegeta barked. "If we were not kinsmen, I would have your head put on the block!"

Lord Goku seemed to falter at that. The Head Stewart was right and the fact that Tao Pai Pai was looking at the proceeding with mild amusement didn't help matters.

"But Dad!" Trunks protested. "He is on our side now! After Goten's dad caught him, he paid him money so that he would work for us!"

An incredulous look appeared on Vegeta's face. "You did what?! You _paid_ him?! Imbecile! I should call the executioner immediately for your stupidity! Do you have any idea of how this looks? You have just admitted to paying a man to take the blame from your son!"

Oh, crap. It hit Gohan like a herd of oxen. Although they had needed to ensure they had the right man to prove his innocence, their action only made it appear as if they were trying to buy the answer they wanted. This...this just couldn't end well.

"Daaaaaaad," Turnks whined. "That's…I mean, that is not the way it happened. Why do you always confuse things? It is like mom says, you are not that smart."

The look on Vegeta's face darkened. "She says that now?" he questioned lowly.

"Yeah. All the time."

"What else does she say about me?"

Lord Goku coughed uncomfortably, breaking off the Head Stewart's inquiry into his wife's insults. Vegeta looked to him before returning his attention to his son. "We shall continue this later." Leaning back in his chair, his eye seemed to be calculating the situation before him. "You have presented me quite a problem, Monkey Lord."

"Many apologies," Lord Goku immediately responded.

"Suppose what you say is true, a tribunal would need to be called. You are aware of what that will entail."

There was a paleness in Lord Goku's face that caused alarms to go off in Gohan's head. "Is there no other way?" he asked, his voice wavering.

"Indeed, no. Not if we are to get to the bottom of this."

"And what about our kinship?"

Vegeta looked to Gohan. "It is because of our shared brethren that I have to do this. There will be much scrutiny with this case and there will be repercussions. If what you say is true, this threatens to shake the very foundation upon which the Four Houses have created. That is something not to take lightly."

"If it pleases the Head House, I would like to retain custody of my son," Lord Goku immediately proposed. "It can be viewed as the accused willingly turning himself in."

"He has had months to do so prior. I am sorry, Lord Goku, I really am; however, this man is a wanted fugitive and my office does not allow me to favor one house over another."

Gohan's father's hands clinched tightly. "Will the Head House wrong me once more?" he demanded.

"How dare you accuse me of such action," Vegeta growled lowly. He glowered at the Monkey Lord for a moment to allow his words to sink in. "By law, his accommodations have been chosen for him. Restrictions on visitation, however, may differ."

"Is that how you rule this matter?" Lord Goku asked, an iciness in his tone Gohan had never heard before.

"I do. Guards."

Before Gohan could even blink, the castle guards were at his side. "What's going on?!" Goten cried, his little hands grabbing onto Gohan's. "Daddy, what's happening?"

Lord Goku turned to face Gohan, a pained look on his face. "I am truly sorry," he began. "We have miscalculated our actions."

However, the young man knew what was going to be said. "This is necessary to prove me innocent, right?"

There was a hesitation, but his father slowly nodded.

"Then that's what will happen. I don't know what this tribunal thing is, but you need to make sure we win it."

"And we will win," Lord Goku promised.

"Take him away," Head Stewart Vegeta ordered. "Send notice to the Four Houses—and get the finest legal team in the kingdom. We have a lot of work to do."

* * *

To Zerolink100: That seems to be an overall theme in the reviews I got for the previous chapter. Hmm...

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	32. Atop the Lookout

It seemed familiar things were a running theme for Gohan lately.

The cell was bleak. The floor was made of stone with hay covering a corner of the room as a makeshift bed. A grid of criss-crossing wooden polls made up the cell bars.

"You know, we have to stop meeting like this, Kid."

At the very least, Gohan's cell was right next to Mr. Piccolo's.

What was a rather depressing place had been made easier for him with the companionship of his old friend. As far as he could tell, the green man hadn't changed much since his incarceration. He was just as gruff as he always was.

"What can I say? I just felt like visiting with you," Gohan replied as he reclined on the hay bed. His arms were tucked behind his head as a pillow. As far as beds went, it was okay. He had spent most of his life sleeping on the ground, so some padding was always nice.

It was going on a week since he had been brought here. Apparently, the protocol for this tribunal required a two-week waiting period. It was mostly so that all of the Houses were informed and allowed to send representation. According to the rather hyper Goten and Trunks, all of the Heads from the Higher Houses were coming and many of the minor ones as well. It gave the youth pause for concern considering how much attention this was getting.

Fortunately, Piccolo seemed unconcerned about all of this. That was comforting. However, a sneaky thought popped into his head, which caused him to frown.

"Hey, Mr. Piccolo, what can you tell me about this tribunal thing?" he called out.

It had only just occurred to him that his old friend had once been apart of the courts. If there was anyone that knew anything about the tribunal, it was him. In fact, he could tell him what to expect out of this entire thing.

"What do you want to know about?" Mr. Piccolo's voice answered back.

"Everything really. This will be my first one and I'd like to know what's ahead of me."

He heard a grunt. "That lawyer of yours hasn't explained it to you?"

Gohan indeed had a lawyer, a profession he had only heard in name, but had never met. In this case, it was some guy from the Monkey Kingdom, but he had been more interested in the young man's story than actually explaining what was all involved. The entire time Gohan thought the guy knew what he was doing, so he never asked.

"I guess I haven't gotten around to asking yet," he shrugged.

There was another grunt, though this one hinted at some disapproval. "This is something to take seriously, Kid," Piccolo reprimanded him.

"I know. Why else do you think I'm asking?"

There was a moment of silence. "The last tribunal involved my father. He was executed like a dog in the town square."

And suddenly this entire thing lost its appeal. Imagines of a hangman's noose, or an executioner's axe filled his mind. "I don't think I needed to know that," he said weakly.

"Better that you know than go into this thinking everything is rainbows and puppy dogs."

"I rather liked the rainbows…"

There was a sigh. "When you go, you'll be seated before a bench with a select number of judges. The judges will be of a different House not affiliated with the case."

Well that was disappointing. "So no Monkeys," he summed up.

"Nor Demon or Ribbon as the case may be."

Hmm, that was a good point too. "So that leaves Turtle."

"More than likely. I hope you have friends in that kingdom, Kid. It'll make things easier for you."

"So then what?"

"Then the proceedings. Both sides will make their case until each and every point has been made. The judges will then deliberate and make a judgement."

"Huh, seems simple enough."

"It does, doesn't it?"

Gohan narrowed his eyes. Mr. Piccolo's tone had been too light-hearted for him. It was like he was hiding something. "There's more, isn't there?"

"More than likely. I've never been to a tribunal, Kid. I only know the process in theory. There might be some things I don't even know about. There may even be some changes too; after all, I've been exiled from the Houses for quite some time."

That was sobering. For the first time since he arrived here, Gohan began to feel anxious. The tribunal had seemed like some game Goten and Trunks made up, even felt like it. Now though, it felt all too real. If something went wrong, the consequences would be dire.

Gohan swallowed deeply, audibly gulp. "Mr. Piccolo? What do you think about my case?"

Several moments went by without an answer. It actually frightened the youth. Normally if something was going to be okay, Mr. Piccolo would say so bluntly. He only deliberated an answer when it wasn't all that pleasant. In fact, as the seconds passed by, the more panicked he began to feel.

"There are some holes in your story, to be frank," Piccolo replied after awhile. "For instance, you have no motive for the Ribbon House to want this Hercule person dead. Admittedly, there might be something I'm missing here, but why would they want Hercule dead in the first place?"

That was an excellent question and one Gohan had no answer to. However, on the flip side…

"But I don't have a motive to kill Hercule either," he responded.

"You do have a unique history with the Demon House, though," Piccolo pointed out. "Your connection with me can be used to twist your words around. Perhaps you didn't think Hercule was fit to be the Head of the Demon House. Maybe you had some deep-seeded hatred for the House and wanted some sort of revenge? There are other possibilities."

"I have the assassin that did it though. That has to count for something."

"That's a good point," Piccolo admitted. "And hopefully that lawyer of yours mentions that. He'll have to go deeper than a simple 'Yes, I did it' answer though. Any action you've done, any words you've said can be used against you."

The more and more Gohan heard about this, the less sure he was about going through with it. And if Piccolo's words weren't enough to make him doubt himself…

"Don't go into this with your eyes closed. You can still be killed for this."

A door creaked open then, followed by the quick pattering of feet on stone. "Heya, Gohan!" Goten cheerily greeted as his little body rammed up onto the wooden bars. "Did ya miss me?"

"Yeah, I did," Gohan weakly said.

"Hey, why are you so pale? Did you spill your milk on you this morning?"

There was in fact no milk served with the food here. "You caught me," the young man was quick to agree. "I was just a little clumsy today."

Piccolo's snort in the next cell told him just how much he thought of that excuse.

"And the green guy is still here!" Goten exclaimed. "I thought you would've left by now! Do you live here or something?"

"Or something," Piccolo grunted.

"You know what? You're green just like the grass is. Does that mean you grew in here?"

Either Goten had forgotten why Piccolo was still being held her, or he was just spouting off nonsense. Either way, it served to distract Gohan from his darkening thoughts. "I was wondering the same thing, Piccolo," he called out.

There was a silence before, "Just because I'm locked up doesn't mean I can't still thrash you, boy."

"Can he really do that, Gohan?" Goten asked. "Can he, can he, can he?"

"Not for some time yet," another voice answered him. That was when Lord Goku appeared, looking bemused. "How are you holding up, Son?"

"As well as I can be," Gohan replied.

"Good. I've come with some news. You will be transferred to the Lookout in the next couple of days."

That made Gohan frown. "The Lookout?"

"It is the place where all Tribunals are held," Lord Goku explained. "The participants and guests are already arriving and will be brought to the Lookout on the day in question. You, of course, will be held there a day or so prior to your summoning."

"Tell me something," Piccolo suddenly spoke up. His words instantly caused a frown to appear on Lord Goku's face. "Who's bright idea was it to have a Tribunal?"

"That would be the law," the Monkey Lord replied crossly.

"Of course, but one wouldn't be raised if the boy wasn't brought here."

"You mean this could've been avoided?" Gohan pipped up.

"But it would have left him a fugitive for that much longer," Lord Goku argued. "We could not have gone to the Demon Kingdom for relief."

"It may have been the better choice. At least his little friend is the Head of that House now. She could've pardoned him with all the proof revealed."

"Only for the Ribbon House to protest and end up convening a Tribunal regardless."

There was an incredible amount of tension in the room. Gohan just rested his head down on the hay and sighed. He was still unsure if the correct decision had been made. Maybe this court thing wouldn't be so bad, or maybe he'd be found guilty and worse. Maybe he should've stuck with the original plan and gone to Videl and this would've been over, or, like his father said, he'd be right back where he was only at a later date.

Perhaps he should've just enjoyed his time with Piccolo while he had the chance.

* * *

The Lookout was unlike anything Gohan had ever seen before.

There was no convenitional way to get to it. It wasn't even on the ground. High above the clouds at what was or was believed to be the center of the Four Kingdoms was a palace. The architecture was different from anything Gohan had seen in his travels, not to mention that it seemed ancient.

As Lord Goku had said, he had been brought here for the Tribunal early. To get to this sky palace, magic had been used. A cloud of smoke had blocked his vision, but when it cleared, he was standing on a platform of tiles with large trees on either side of him and the palace looming in front. He and his guards didn't enter through the front door, which was closed shut. Instead they went around a side and entered there. Again, Gohan was placed in a cell, though this one was particularly comfy in comparison to the one he had been in. There was an actual bed and a small table where a basin sat. There was water in the basin and the youth could only reason that it was for washing his face.

However, it was that much lonlier. Without Piccolo to talk to, or even the visits he received from various Monkeys, Gohan found himself depressed. In fact, he wished the Tribunal was already here so that it was over and done with.

That day came soon. When the guards came, Gohan did his best to look presentable. Though he wore the same clothes as he always had, he had made use of the water basin to wash himself as much as possible. Perhaps it was a useless effort, but it was at least effort.

Removed him his cell, Gohan walked the corridor until he reached a door at its end. One of the guards opened it, revealing a large court room. On one side of the room was a large box, or at least that's what it looked like to the young man. Two tables were situated in front of it with important looking people sitting at them. Immediately, Gohan recognized Lord Goku and the man that was his lawyer, a Monkey Lord by the name of Paragus.

At the other table were people he failed to recognize, but they looked at him with steely blue eyes. Gulping, Gohan was led to the table with his father.

Behind the tables was a wooden railing, polished to a shine. Beyond it were numberous benches, all of which were filled with people. Immediately behind Lord Goku's table were people Gohan identified as Monkeys. His mother was there, an arm gripped tightly around Goten, who looked extremely uncomfortable. The same could be said of Trunks, though the woman that held him had a rather unusual color of hair. Vegeta was absent though.

As he came to his seat, Gohan then spotted what must have been the Turtle envoy. Lord Krillen and his wife were present, along with Roshi. The old man gave him a little wave, something that made the youth smile at him.

"Take your chair," the guard gruffly ordered him, which Gohan did. On one side was Paragus, who didn't even look at him; the other was Lord Goku, who gave him a small smile.

"You look well," his father greeted him.

"I tried my best," the young man responded. "Are we about to start?"

"Not quite. There is one more delegation to arrive and then the judges."

As if that were a cue, there was a low murmuring behind Gohan. Turning his head, he immediately caught sight of the Demon House entering the room. In the front was Videl, looking severe in her queenly garb. Erasa was just behind her, just as duly dressed, though she had done her best to look as elegant as she could. There were a few Demon Lords with them, but none of them really mattered that much to him.

For a moment, Videl's eyes looked to his. There was no change in her expression nor his. If anything, it was just an acknowledgement of each other. Then she was led to another part of the court room, which made sense. Considering the animosity between the Demon and Monkey Houses, it was best to keep them separate.

Turning away, Gohan couldn't help but stare at the other table for a moment. "Who are they?" he asked his father.

"Representatives of the Ribbon House," Lord Goku said disdainfully. "The old man you see is the Ribbon Head, Gero. At his side is one of his Lords, Blue. I am not familiar with the other men."

That caused the youth to frown. There was something about those two men he felt he should know. It was only mentioned to him recently, or at least what his memory was saying recently.

A door on the other side of the room then opened, drawing the full attention of the room's occupants. A man with black skin and a turban on his head appeared, which immediately caused Gohan to stiffen.

"Welcome to the Lookout," Popo the magical genie greeted.

Gohan immediately grabbed Lord Goku's arm, earning him a curious look from his father. "I know that genie," he whispered.

"You do? How?"

"That doesn't matter. Whatever you do, do not make a wish…ever."

There was a slow turning of Popo's head, the genie seeming to focus right on Gohan, which raised the hairs on the back of his neck. This red lips twitched, but he refrained from reacting further. "You see!" the young man hissed. "He's dying to grant a wish."

"Methinks your nerves are just acting up," Lord Goku said after a moment. "That is but the humble bailiff."

"Bailiff?"

"Yes, the bailiff. His only role is to begin and end the Tribunal. I am unaware of his previous vocation, but I believe that is moot."

"Are you sure?"

"Quite sure."

Well, that was relieving…but not by much.

"All rise," Popo's voice rang out, causing all in attendance to stand. Gohan noticed Lord Goku and Paragus doing the same, which caused him to quickly get onto his feet as well. "Welcome to the court our honorable judges."

Through the same door came the judges. Now, honorable was a grand word. Most people strove to be considered honorable. In this case, the use of the word was a very big stretch.

Into the room came three men of various heights and colors. The first one Gohan recognized as Lord Shin of the Kai House. The second was of some Kai Lord or something since he hung around Lord Shin from what the youth remembered of him. The short purple man adjusted the monocle on his face as he entered the room.

And behind them was the worst of all—Lord Kai.

"Yes, yes, finally the respect I deserve," Lord Kai cheerily said. "It only took the better part of a millennia."

The three Kais walked to the box and entered it. They stood above the audience, their upper bodies and heads the only exposed part of themselves. Lord Kai had taken the middle position, with Lord Shin to the right, and the other Kai to the left. "Now then, let's get this little shindig started," Lord Kai announced.

The assembly began to sit down, only to stop in mid-motion. "Ah, ah, ah! No one said you could sit," Lord Kai spoke sharply. Looking to Popo, he then said, "If you would, Bailiff?"

"All be seated," the genie called out.

There was a collective plopping into seats, a low grumbling throughout the room. Lord Kai looked rather pleased with himself. "Now then, if the charges would be presented."

One of the Ribbon representatives stood. "It is on behalf of the Demon House that the Ribbon House speaks," the man said. "What is undisputed was that the former Head of Demon House was assassinated and the man responsible sits before the court on this day, that of Prince Gohan of Monkey House."

"That is quite a serious charge," Lord Shin remarked.

"It is indeed," Lord Kai agreed. Looking to Gohan, he began, "And what is your…"

The old man trailed off, his eyes squinting. "I've seen you before, haven't I?" he asked to no one in particular. Then, his eyes sharpened before darting to another part of the room. "Oh my! The girl is here! And not in her best clothes either! Oh, what a shame."

Though Gohan couldn't see it, he didn't need to imagine the murderous glare coming from Videl.

"Your Honor," the Ribbon representative interrupted, "we are in sess—"

"I know where I'm at, youngster," Lord Kai snapped at him, cutting the man off. "If you find fault with how I run this Tribunal, then you can leave at any moment."

A pained sigh came from Lord Shin that spoke of centuries of repressed regret. "Let us proceed with the accused, Lord Kai."

Lord Kai gave his underling a look. "Very well. What does the accused say in his defense?"

Paragus was the one to answer. "Prince Gohan is innocent of the charges levied against him."

"Oh, great, a he said, he said case. Kami, I hates these."

Gohan leaned towards Lord Goku. "Are these usually like this?"

"No, I cannot say that they are."

"Seeing as you're making accusations," Lord Kai then addressed the Ribbon House delegation, "state your case."

A different man spoke up this time. In fact, the old man—the one called Gero—stood up. "Your Honors, the crime in question occurred during negotiations between the Ribbon and Demon Houses. I, as the Head of Ribbon House, and Lord Blue were conducting treaty negotiations when the accused arrived."

"Mind telling us what these treaty negotiations entailed?" Lord Kai inquired.

Gero was silent for a moment, as if gathering his courage. For some reason, Gohan didn't feel that was the case though. The way the Ribbon Head held himself, working up courage was not an issue for him. Maybe he was just pausing for dramatic effect? "We were discussing closer ties between our great Kingdoms. In fact, we had make great progress when the accused deliberately interfered."

The three Kais eyes slid over to Gohan. "Young man, that is another serious offense," the purple Kai said, adjusting his monocle. "Two by my count. Explain your reasoning for your interference."

Gohan looked to his left and right, unsure of what to do. He had to admit, he was feeling pretty nervous, yet his anxiety was threatening to explode all over him. Thankfully, he didn't have to do a thing.

Paragus stood up then. For a Monkey Lord, his appearance screamed, "Don't mess with me." Between the beard and the scar over one eye, he would've been more at home in a bar fight than a legal squabble. "The Prince had nothing to do with the negotiations," he proclaimed deeply.

"Then what was he doing there?" the purple Kai pressed.

"He was in the company of the Princess Videl at the time of his sojourn into the Demon Kingdom. She had requested his presence to appear in Dabura and he agreed to join her."

"Is this correct, Prince Gohan?" Lord Shin asked.

It seemed there was no way he was getting out of this without speaking. "Yes, your Honor," Gohan replied. Surprisingly, his voice did not waver, something he was rather proud of.

"Do you disagree with his companioning with the Demon Princess?" the Kai directed to Gero.

"I cannot dispute his arrival with the princess," the old man acknowledged. "However, once he arrived, his very presence in effect ended our negotiations."

"Perhaps it would be best that you tell us what you were negotiating," Lord Kai suggested. "As much as I enjoy all of this legal wrangling, both sides have been vague as to what exactly happened."

"As previously stated, the two houses were in treaty negotiations," Gero stated. "The Ribbon House was assisting the Demon House in restoring itself through trade agreements and closer representation in each other's court. In order to solidify such relations, a clause was being worked on that would unite our Kingdoms.

"For the treaty to be ratified, a Lord of Ribbon House must take for his bride a Princess of the Demon House."

That's when it hit Gohan with the force of a charging oxen. The last time he had spoken to Videl, she had told him of her impending bethrothment to one of the Ribbon Lords.

"Well, well, you sly dog," Lord Kai complimented the youth, grinning cheekily at him. "I honestly didn't think you had it in you. I have to say, I am proud of you."

"Your Honor," Gero growled lowly. "I do not believe you understand the significance of this."

"Oh, don't get your tights in a knot. I know an arranged marriage is quite a serious matter."

"Of course, it is. When the Monkey Prince arrived in Dabura, he actively sought to seduce the princess in order to void the agreement. As was explained during negotiations, the princess was described to be as pure as snow and her chastity protected."

Somewhere in the room, someone coughed uncomfortably, followed by a harsh shush. Gohan, in the meantime, had grown red in the face. Part of him wondered if he could have cooked an egg on his face with how much heat was coming off of it.

"I see," Lord Kai spoke slowly before muttering to himself, "note to self: has chastity belt." Coughing then, he cleared his throat before asking, "What makes you so sure the accused was attempting a seduction?"

"Because," Gero answered, a gleam in his eye, "the Monkey Prince was seen entering the Demon Princess' bedroom at a very late hour. Subsequently, the marriage was called off. The only explanation is the accused's interference."

Slowly, Lord Goku and Paragus looked to Gohan with similar expressions of disbelief. The young man shrunk in his seat at their gazes, not to mention the rather approving smirk from Lord Kai.

 _Please, if someone knows a spell that makes the ground swallow you up, please use it._

* * *

Videl's queenly robes here are based on megaminoeien's _Queen Bideru Sketch._ As you may have noticed, she had a tendency to put devil horns on Videl in some form or fashion lol. You can also get a good look at it in _Wardrobe 01 Sketch._ It's the one in the upper left corner.

To Zerolink100: Pretty sure with all his appearances, he is quite a lucky escape artist. Nothing can hold him back forever!

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	33. The Tribunal

Gohan was expected to say something.

Anything.

Yet his tongue had turned into ash in his mouth.

Thankfully, that's where Paragus came in.

"I would like a short recess with my client to discuss this allegation," the Monkey Lord requested, his voice booming throughout the room.

"We object," Gero immediately retaliated. "The accussed has had time to consult with his representation. We feel it is unnecessary that they be given more."

The three judges looked to each other, some sort of silent communication going on between them. It was Lord Shin who said, "Motion denied."

Well, so much for Paragus.

The moment his lawyer sat down, he turned right to Gohan. "You did not mention anything about spending time with the girl," he growled lowly.

"Is this going to be a problem?" Lord Goku whispered back.

"Not really, but I would have appreciated prior knowledge."

"Resuming from where you left off," Lord Shin then said, "explain how the cancellation of the arranged marriage affected your negotiations."

"As can be attested through the eons of this practice, this clause was meant to enforce the treaty beyond a generation," Gero explained. "The treaty in and of itself was unlike anything negotiated prior."

"You'd be surprised," Lord Kai muttered.

"Excuse me, your Honor?"

"I said—"

"He said for you to continue," Lord Shin hastily interrupted, glaring at the elder Kai.

However, Paragus had seized on that exchange. "If it pleases the court, I would like to point out that history is littered with unfulfilled marriage arrangements. None of these affected the pact that was ultimately made, only a few changed clauses at that. The Monkey House would like to know why this was not done in the face of a cancelled arrangement?"

Gero, along with Lord Blue, narrowed their eyes at the Monkey Lord. "Because the Ribbon House had prepared much for this marriage," Lord Blue retorted. "The money and resources spent arranging this would have needed to be repaid and the Demon House would have viewed that as unnecessary, which would have prolonged negotiations."

"Is the Ribbon House finding itself in dire need for money?" Paragus mocked.

Lord Blue shot out of his seat, rage on his face. The chair in which he had sat on screeched on the floor before its back collided with the wooden railing. His mouth opened to respond, but he stopped short. Gohan was quick to notice the warning hand of Gero gripping the Lord's arm.

The pause, however, allowed Paragus to continue his verbal assault. "With the arranged marriage called off, was my client then awarded the hand of the Demon Princess? Such would be news to our kin if that be the case, if not to all of the Four Kingdoms." To punctuate his point, a smile bordering on being called a smirk, or even a sneer, appeared on his face. "In fact, one could say such an arrangement would help heal the rift between the Demon and Monkey Houses."

Gohan felt that perhaps his lawyer was going a bit far with that claim. Considering that the houses in question currently resided on opposite sides of the room, how one marriage could heal that rift was a rather ridiculous notion, even to him. Heck, he hadn't even been present for most of the discord and knew it was going to take a lot to heal that burned bridge.

That didn't stop a hushed murmuring throughout the room, though. However, that point was rebutted in an instant. "As everyone knows, such a rift could never be healed by such an arrangement," Gero retorted, expressing Gohan's thoughts. "The ire each house shares for the other is punctuated by the accused's own kidnapping at the hands of the Demon House."

"Nor is there any shared loved between Monkey and Ribbon," Paragus pointed out. "As I seem to recall, you had a role to play in the kidnapping's aftermath."

"That has nothing to do with this!"

"Alright, alright, that's enough out of you two," Lord Kai spoke then. "As amusing as this was, I fail to see the relevance any of this has with the murder of the late Demon Head."

Paragus was quick to answer. "It has occurred to me, your Honor, that at the heart of this matter is not the assassination itself, but of a conflict between the Higher Houses."

Lord Kai raised an eyebrow. "And how do you come to that conclusion?"

"He cannot," Gero spat out, "because it is a ridiculous notion that his has nothing to do with Demon Head Hercule."

"Let him speak," Lord Shin said quietly.

"As Ribbon Head Gero mentioned, there is no lost love between the Monkey and Demon Houses, the kidnapping being central to its current status. However, the Ribbon House also had involvement in that incident. In fact, it was the Ribbon Head himself who was the Head Stewart at the time of the incident, and it was he who called off the search for my kinsmen. As you can verify, relations between Monkey House and Ribbon House soured around this period of time."

"That still has nothing to do with—" Gero started.

Only to be interrupted by Lord Kai. "Go on."

"It is no secret that when the Head of a House because Head Stewart, they favor their own House and rule against those they feel wronged by, despite the decree that the Head House be a neutral arbiter among the Higher Houses. Any historian can regale audiences with such examples. And as everyone here can attest to, the role of Head Stewart is being transitioned to the Head of the Monkey House.

"The date of this is no secret and by the leadership of the Ribbon House's actions, they knew of it too. These negotiations of theirs with the Demon House coincide with the approachment of this date."

"So you are saying the union between Ribbon House and Demon House is to offer protection to the Ribbon House from the Monkey House?" the purple Kai questioned.

"That is preposterous!" Gero roared, his face growing red from anger. "There is no way the Demon House could offer that sort of protection, not after the war decimated their house!"

"I'm inclined to agree with that point," Lord Kai responded. "That sort of union wouldn't be too beneficial for Ribbon."

"It is bordering on conspiracy," Lord Blue chimed in snarkily.

"Not if you considering it from another angle," Paragus continued to argue. "Let us return to the issue of the cancelled arranged marriage. If my client had indeed convinced Demon Head Hercule to cancel it, why would he have assassinated him?"

"To make sure the arranged marriage stayed nullified," Lord Blue replied evenly.

"Except that it would be more beneficial for the Monkey Prince to have his bethrothment to the Demon Princess publicly announced," Paragus immediately countered. "And only the Demon Head would have done as much."

Gohan was watching the Ribbon House delegation and it was because of this that he noticed how pale Gero and Blue became. They looked like men that had committed a misstep somewhere.

As much as the young man was enjoying his defense, it occurred to him that perhaps what Paragus was arguing wasn't as far-fetched as it seemed. In fact, it was making so much sense to him it was scary.

One of the Ribbon Lords began to sputter. It was mostly sounds at first, but eventually he managed to say something that made sense. "Are you implicating that someone _else_ assassinated the late Demon Head?"

"I am. In fact, I believe the very conspirators are sitting at the other table."

Outrage immediately roared throughout the room. Gero and his delegations were nearly foaming at their collective mouths as they hurled threats, the other Ribbon Lords in the audience demanding recourse. The Lords of the Monkey House were responding just as ardently at the Ribbon House. Even the Demon House was unleashing their fury. The sole group of people that kept their calm was the Turtle House, all of whom watched the scene unfold.

Suddenly, a powerful force descended on everyone. Even though Gohan was seated in his chair, watching the anger and rage, a pressure fell onto him, seeming to crush his very will. Everyone else in the room was effected as well, the outraged audience members crumbling into their seats.

And then the pressure was gone. "If we are going to have any more outbursts like that," Lord Kai spoke lowly, if not dangerously, "then I will remove all but the participating parties. Is that understood?"

The silence that met him was taken as an affirmation.

"Wh-what was that?" Gohan murmured softly.

"Magic," Lord Goku answered him, surprising the youth. "I had heard the Kai House knew old magics, but I did not realize the extent of that power."

"If he has that much power, why isn't he ruling the world?"

"Just because he has power does not make him invincible to swords and arrows. All it takes is one."

"The Kai House is small," Paragus added quietly to them. "If they were to wage a war with the Higher Houses, they would be wiped out. We would take casualties, of course, but not even these Kais have the power to subdue an army of hundreds of thousands."

"Now then, the Monkey House has made quite an accusation," Lord Kai continued. "I feel it would be in the best interest of this tribunal if we heard how they have come to such a conclusion."

This time, it was Lord Goku who stood to speak. "It is because we have obtained a witness, your Honor. If it pleases the court, we will bring this witness forth for deposition."

"That is absurd!" Gero barked. "A witness? There is no such thing. It must be one that was coerced or paid by the Monkey House. If the court allows it, it would be a travesty to our descendants!"

"There's nothing wrong with questioning an alleged witness," the purple Kai responded. "And if coercion or bribery was committed, the testimony will be stricken. Bring this witness before us."

Lord Goku then turned around, placing a hand on the railing as he leaned over to one of the Monkey Lords. He whispered something to him, which caused the Lord to stand up and leave the room. Facing the judges, Lord Goku exclaimed, "I have sent word for the witness to be brought forth, your Honors."

"Then let us continue," Lord Kai said. "The court will now invoke Statue XII, and promptly exercise the power bestowed on it by Statue VIII."

Gohan frowned before leaning towards Paragus. "What is he talking about?"

"The judges are ordering both sides to be silent," his lawyer explained. "Statue XII prevents either party from speaking, usually so that the court can bring forth testimonies of other parties, which is indicated by Statue VIII."

"…meaning?"

"The court will question people and neither us nor the Ribbon House may speak their agreement or disagreement with whom the court calls forth."

"Oh." Gohan really didn't get it, but he figured if he stayed quiet, the less likely he would be to get himself into trouble.

"Bailiff, please bring before the court the Head of the Demon House," Lord Kai ordered.

Gohan's eyes immediately shot to a side. It took awhile, but eventually Videl appeared. Most of the dress she wore was covered by a flowing cape that dragged on the floor behind her. The horned crown she wore on her head shinned from the light of the room. At her side was Popo, who had somehow disappeared from his station and was guiding the young woman before the judges.

"Demon Head Bideru," Lord Kai intoned. "May I say you're looking utterly radiant today?"

"Keep your hands to yourself if you know what is good for you," Videl growled.

"Is that any way to treat an old friend?"

"It is not the way I normally treat them. The way I treat my old friends is to feed them to my dragon. It is nearly Icarus' lunch time."

Lord Kai stared at her before he uncomfortably cleared his throat. "Back to the matter at hand, I see. Please explain to the court the series of events as you saw them."

Videl straightened her shoulders. "As it has been mentioned, I was summoned to Dabura by my father, the late-Demon Head Hercule. Prince Gohan was in my company at the time and the two of us ventured there. It was then I learned of the arranged bethrothment to Lord Blue of Ribbon House."

"It seems there is no disputing the beginning of this story. What happened next?"

"I spoke to my father about annulling the bethrothment. We had an argument over it, but he acquiescented to my wishes."

"Was this before or after the Monkey Prince was seen entering your bed chamber?"

"Before."

Gohan half-expected one of the Ribbon delegates to protest, but when he looked over, he saw all four men still seated. None of them had pleased expressions, but they held fast to their silence.

"Would you mind explaining your relationship to the accused?"

Though he couldn't see the entirety of her face, the young man could see some of her side and he did not miss the clenching of her jaw. It didn't take much for him to realize just what she was about to share. "The reason why Prince Gohan and I were in each other's company was because we were courting each other."

There was hushed whispering, but those ended quickly after a glance from Lord Kai. Still, Gohan felt his face blushing again. He could already feel his father's gaze on him, not to mention his mother's boring into the back of his skull.

"Really?" Lord Kai exclaimed, his voice very much interested in this turn of events. "Why do your prospective Houses not know of this courtship?"

"Because we began it after Prince Gohan's reunion at the Head House last year. We were not in contact with any of our people as we traveled the Four Kingdoms. In fact, it had taken my father's messenger two months to find us."

"So it would be fair for the court to assume that this was your reasoning for changing Demon Head Hercule's mind," Lord Shin asked.

"It is."

"How did he take this news?"

"…not well."

That was putting it mildly— _very_ mildly. Gohan could still hear Hercule's words as he bellowed and scream and cried. _"There is no way_ my _daughter is in love with a flea bag from Monkey House! I will have him skinned and flayed! He better not have touched my daughter!"_

After that, threats of physical harm—make that _more_ threats of physical harm—had been made.

"Define 'not well'."

"My father is overprotective of me. In fact, he had me locked away in a castle in the mountains of the Demon Kingdom when I was much younger."

"Obviously he changed his mind," the purple Kai pointed out.

Videl sighed. "I mentioned that if Prince Gohan and I continued our courtship, it may help relations with Monkey House."

"Your father preferred a union between Monkey and Demon Houses?"

"At the time I did not know his preferences. Upon later study I discovered Demon House stood much to gain from closer ties with Monkey House, even moreso than with Ribbon House. The timing of such a union with the Monkey Head assuming the mantle of Head Stewart factored in as well."

"If Demon House were to establish relations with Monkey House, that would potentially render the treaty with Ribbon House worthless," Lord Shin remarked.

Videl nodded sharply. "It would. In fact, my father was prepared to end negotiations once he understood the depth of our relationship."

"And how deep was that relationship?" Lord Kai pressed eagerly.

He was met with silence.

"Were you still pure as snow?"

"I will rip your junk from your body and salt the bloody land it leaves behind."

The men in the room instantly stiffened in their seats. Legs crossed over one another as many shifted about uncomfortably.

Lord Kai gulped deeply. "I believe we have exhausted this line of questioning, don't you think?"

"I would like to see this unfinished treaty," the purple Kai spoke then, which earned him a scowl from Lord Kai. "Much has been made of it and it would help clarify for the court what each party would deem important."

"I will see to it a copy is delivered before the Tribunal," Videl said.

"Are there any more questions for the Demon Head?" the purple Kai asked as he looked to him fellow judges. Neither one replied, so he then said to Videl, "You may return to your seat, Demon Head Bideru."

Videl bowed her head before she turned away from the judges' bench. Again, Gohan found the young woman looking to him, but unlike earlier, she held his gaze much longer. There was a ghost of a smile playing on her lips despite the stoic mask she wore.

And then she was gone, returning to her seat in the audience. That was no comforting look, or one seeking apology. For that Gohan felt as if things might be alright.

In the meantime, the three Kais were huddled closely together, their voices faint whispers. They were talking among themselves, though Gohan didn't know what for. He figured they'd announcing themselves in due time.

And he was right. "Has your witness been retrieved, Lord Goku?" Lord Shin inquired.

Almost as if those words were a summoning, the doors to the court room opened and Lord Goku's messenger entered. He quickly walked up to the Monkey Lord, leaning on the wooden rail much like the other man had done previously. A few words were exchanged and Lord Goku stood up. "The witness is here," he declared.

"Then bring them forward."

Again, the doors opened and the stern face of Tao Pai Pai appeared. There were gasps throughout the room as the mercenary sauntered towards the judges' bench. "I understand I've been summoned?" he inquired bemusedly.

"You have," Lord Shin replied, his own face stern. "From the reaction of the room, I am led to believe you have some renown."

A smirk appeared on the man's face as he came to a stop right where Videl had previously been standing. "I have."

"Then introduce yourself to the court."

The assassin tilted his head back as he lifted up his chin. "I am Tao Pai Pai, mercenary-for-hire."

"So that is what kind of man you are," Lord Kai surmised. "I'll give you only one warning, mercenary-for-hire: if you try anything in this room, I will crush you where you stand."

"Consider me warned," Tao Pai Pai mockingly replied.

The three Kais narrowed their eyes. "I hope this witness of yours is of some value to you," Lord Kai addressed Lord Goku. "It would be a shame for you if you pinned your hopes on him."

"Now that we have established who you are," Lord Shin then said, "tell the court of your involvement in this matter."

"It's rather simple, really," Tao Pai Pai replied. "I was hired to remove the Demon Head Hercule from his throne. After that, I was assigned to silence the youngling over there to keep everything nice and tidy."

Tao Pai Pai's answer was so blunt, so unexpected, the judges were staring at him with wide eyes that were practically bulging out of their eye sockets. Incredulous was a good word to describe them. "A-a-and you carried out your orders?" the purple Kai eventually asked.

"Demon Head Hercule is dead, is he not?"

Lord Shin sobered himself following that answer. "Who was your employer?"

"The Ribbon House paid for my services. I don't know the why; I never ask for I seldom ever need to know that reason. Gold spends everywhere no matter how it is earned."

"You speak so freely," the lavender Kai remarked. "I would like to know the reason as to why."

"Loyalty can be bought, just like anything else," Tao Pai Pai explained nonchalantely. "So is mine when I am paid."

"If you are under the employ of the Ribbon House, then why testify for the Monkey House?"

The mercenary raised an eyebrow. "I would think that answer it quite obvious. The Monkey House employs me now; after all, they outbid my previous employer."

By now, Gero was red in the face from rage. Veins were popping out of his neck and he looked dangerously closed to exploding where he sat. His delegates were whispering to each other, panic clearly on their faces.

However, Tao Pai Pai's admission hadn't ended the questioning as many would have thought. "When did you come into the employ of the Monkey House?" Lord Kai inquired.

"Within the last month."

"If I were to pay you, would you implicate whomever I wanted you to?" he pressed.

"If that is what you want, why not?" Tao Pai Pai shrugged.

"In this case, is this what you are being paid for?"

The mercenary shook his head. "I was paid for my knowledge, which I just told you mere moments ago. I've even been used as a personal bodyguard during my current employment"

Silence reigned over the court room. Even from where he sat, Gohan could see the seriousness on each of the judges' faces. "This is quite a lot to take in," Lord Kai said after awhile.

"Perhaps you should go deliberate it somewhere," Tao Pai Pai suggested.

The elder Kai's eyes narrowed. "Your presence is no longer required. Bailiff, see to it this man is removed to other accommodations."

"As you wish," Popo replied before walking towards the mercenary. Tao Pai Pai just glanced at him before utterly ignoring him.

"If you know what is good for you, you won't lay a finger on me."

"I apologize for the inconvenience, but I must remove you from the room."

"I would like to see you try."

"And I wish he were already in a jail cell," Lord Kai snorted.

Popo's head snapped to look at the Kai. His face lit up with joy. "You wish? Very well! Your wish is granted!"

With a snap of his fingers a cloud of smoke exploded all over Tao Pai Pai. The mercenary didn't even have time cry out in surprise as he disappeared from sight. It wasn't long after that the smoke dissipated, revealing the man to no longer being present.

Lord Kai blinked owlishly. "What happened?"

"He is in a jail cell," Popo replied proudly.

"Really? You placed him in our jail already?"

"As I said, a jail cell."

Gohan had to resist the urge to groan. He knew where this was going. While Popo indeed placed Tao Pai Pai in a cell, there was no telling where that jail cell was. It could be here, at the Head House, or who knows where. It was going to take a lot of searching to find the mercenary, assuming he was still in one piece.

Before Lord Kai could go further in his questioning of Popo, Lord Shin said, "Tao Pai Pai did make an excellent suggestion. We will need to deliberate this. This is as good of a time as any."

"Before you go," Gero immediately spoke up, standing up as he pressed his hands against the table in front of him. "I wish to pass a motion for stay of judgement. All of these false accusations leveled against the Ribbon House are outrageous. We require time to accurately disprove this nonsense."

"You will stay right where you are," Lord Kai ordered, his voice deepening to the point it sounded as if it were bouncing off of the walls, coming from all directions. "No one is leaving this room until we have come to a verdict. As you yourself have mentioned before, you have had plenty of time to present your case. Now it is time for judgement.

"And everyone will be judged."

"Are you sure about that?" Lord Shin asked. "After all, I see no need to judge the audience."

Lord Kai's voice returned to its normal, elderly voice. "Well of course they won't be judged. I meant the parties in front of us."

"Why did you not say that to begin with?"

"Because I was trying to be dramatic! Sheesh!"

Watching the antics in front of him, Gohan slowly came to the conclusion that he was not in the best of hands. These were his judges, his jury, and maybe his executioners.

Kami help him.

* * *

To Zerolink100: Depends on what they deep important. I get the feeling Old Kai prefers to remember Videl over Gohan lol

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


	34. Elope

It was to the warm touch of sunlight that Gohan woke. He fought it at first, but eventually his slumbering mind refused to rest any longer. With great reluctance, he opened his eyes.

The window was the source of the offending light that had awaken him. For some reason the curtains were thrown open, allowing the light to pour in. Groaning, the young man rolled away from it. If only he could get a couple more minutes, that was all he asked.

Unfortunately, Gohan had the unfortunate luck that when he woke up, he was awake and there was no use fighting it. Laying on the bed mattress, the dark-haired youth was painfully aware of the seconds that slowly crept by.

Today was the day.

Unable to resist any longer, Gohan sighed and tossed the comforter off of him and sat up, swinging his legs off of the bed to hang over the mattress' edge. For a moment he sat there looking at the carpet on the floor, hardly budging as his mind slowly became more and more alert. With a turn of his head, he saw a nearby chair that had today's wardrobe draped over it.

It had been six months since the Tribunal. The three Kais had taken their time as they deliberated the testimonies and arguments they had heard; that part had been nerve-wrecking for the young man. There had been more dispositions in which Paragus and his Ribbon House counterpart had demanded, calling upon witness after witness after witness. Even Lord Goku had been called for his role in the capture of Tao Pai Pai, though Paragus had damn near killed someone from the Ribbon House to keep Gohan off the stand. Apparently, his lawyer felt that the youth would've made things worse if he was to testify.

After everything that had happened, he didn't really blame the man.

When the Kais returned after their final deliberation, they had walked into the court room at a measured pace, their faces solemn. There was no indication what any of them would have ruled.

 _"After much deliberation," Lord Kai spoke, the center of attention for the entire room, "we find the accused, Prince Gohan of the Monkey House, not guilty for the assassination of the late-Demon Head Hercule."_

Those words had meant the world to him. In fact, the entire Monkey House had erupted in cheers, causing Lord Kai to call for their silence.

 _"Don't make me use one of the scary genie's wishes on you," he threatened, which caused Popo to snapped his head towards him. Eyeing him, Lord Kai said, "Calm down, Bailiff, I'm not making a wish."  
_

Regardless of that short episode, Gohan had felt relief. The feeling of the weight of the world had lifted off his shoulders. Yet, that was not all Lord Kai had said.

 _"Until a formal investigation has been conducted, the Ribbon Head Gero and Lord Blue will be taken into custody. They are to be charged with the assassination and conspiracy to cover up said assassination of the late-Demon Head Hercule."_

As of right now, Gero and Blue were locked up at the Head House, undoubtedly receiving glares and promises of bodily harm from Piccolo. If it weren't for the counterspells decorating his cell, the former Demon Lord would not have bothered wasting his breath on them.

However, after the verdict had been read, Gohan had been whisked away by his mother, who had promptly—and literally—placed a leash around his neck.

 _"I am not letting my boy run off on me again!"_

Those had been her words at the time and they had been echoed these last few months. The meaning behind those words had changed though.

Because it had been revealed the full extent of the relationship between Gohan and Videl, there had been many uncomfortable interrogations concerning it. To say both of their Houses were less than thrilled was an understatement. While Gohan had to contend with a couple of parents that wanted him to "pick a respectable Monkey girl," Videl had to fend off the outrage of her own court. Well, now that he thought about this, there were people in the Monkey House that were giving him stink eye too.

And that was only the first month. By the time the second had arrived, delegations of Monkey and Demon agents had come together for the first time in what must have been decades to hammer out a marriage agreement between the Monkey Prince and…well, Demon Head. The Monkey House had been doing its best to limit whatever bounty the Demon House would have received in their now-pending union while the Demon House was doing everything to squeeze out any and every concession it could get.

The sad part was that the two people most affected hadn't even been asked whether they wanted to be married or not. It was as if someone had realized the implications of the situation and had told anyone and everyone they could find about it. Seemingly overnight everyone had assumed it was a done deal.

It was towards the end of the second month, nearly the third month when Gohan had finally seen Videl. She had appeared on the verge of exasperation with everything that had been going on. That meeting between them lacked any words as the two had simply sat next to each other, leaning into and holding the other as they enjoyed a quiet moment.

At the very least, neither of them had been opposed to the idea of marriage. Again, this was used against them as assurance that the holy union would occur.

As if to make matters worse, the Lady Chichi had swooped in and assumed total command of the wedding plans.

The clothes lying on the chair were just one part of those preparations. Sighing, Gohan stood up and walked around his bed, coming to stand in front of the window. The shining sun bathed the country side surrounding the Head House in a gentle caress.

Of course, the wedding was being held at the Head House. Much like his return to the Monkey House, this was considered a big event and it was going to be taken advantage of. Heck, there was even a reception planned for after the ceremony. There was an itinerary somewhere that listed everything that was going to happen step-by-step. Undoubtedly, it had been written by his mother.

The sound of the door knob turning caught his ear then. Considering how soft it was, it was most likely a servant trying to carefully enter so they wouldn't disturb his sleep, not until they actually reached the bed. The door open and was closed just as softly, further proof that—"

"Oh, you're up."

Gohan snapped his head to a side. Standing in front of the door was Videl. The dark-haired woman looked much like she had the first time they had met after the Tribunal, though the young man had a pretty good idea why.

Slowly, Videl crossed the room until she came to stand next to him in front of the window. "Today's only just starting," she groaned as she squinted her eyes in the sunlight.

"Yeah," Gohan agreed.

"You know, I knew your mother was a little off her hinges, but I hadn't realized just how much until now."

Lady Chichi had been at Videl's side for weeks. From what Gohan had heard of, there had been a bunch of fuss of what the Demon Head would wear—from the color of the dress to the ribbons and fills to the cut. Then came what the bridesmaids would wear, which had launched an even bigger battle.

Lady Chichi had wanted something of ten people standing for the couple—ten people each that is. Videl had fought that tooth and nail until that number was down to one each. Standing for Videl would be her lady-in-waiting, whom was undoubtedly Erasa. For Gohan, he needed a…what was the word again? Best Man? Something like that. Unfortunately, the closest friend he could think of was Dende; yet, it was no secret that if he went with a Demon, there would be hell to pay. So he went with a safe choice from the Monkey House.

Goten.

At least, that was the one choice that Gohan knew he could make that wouldn't have his mother completely change it behind his back. Poor Goten had no idea what was going on around him with all of the attention to make him presentable for the ceremony.

However, something was nagging at the dark-haired youth. If he recalled right, there had been a huge fuss made about him and Videl seeing each other prior to the ceremony. Something about bad luck, or so he was told. It was the first he was hearing about it and it didn't make much sense to him; apparently, Videl didn't seem to care about it either.

"She wants me to wear white," Videl complained, drawing the youth out of his musings. " _White._ I'm pretty sure there are people snickering about how dishonest that is."

"You know, if you're not found in your room, she's going to skin you alive," Gohan spoke.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But I don't _want_ to do this. I only agreed to this matrimony stuff because it was pretty much decided for me. Don't get me wrong, I kinda like the idea of you being mine for the rest of our lives, but all of this formality crap is just…"

Well, that was nice to hear. "Too bad we can't just elope," he joked. "The guards would find us real quick."

"I wonder why," Videl said as she gave him a sideways look.

"If it makes you feel any better, this isn't my thing either. I'd be fine with some priest wishing us a long marriage than all of this."

"If only we weren't important people."

Gohan snorted. "You're the important one, Miss Demon Head."

Videl returned the snort. "Look who's talking, Mr. Future Demon Head."

And suddenly it struck Gohan why the resistance from the Monkey House had practically vanished. By marrying Videl, he was right up to the top of the Demon House's hierarchy. The politics of it all was huge. No wonder Gero had wanted his own person to wed Videl.

"Today's gonna suck."

"Yeah, yeah, it is."

* * *

The servants were hustling around, creating a chaotic mess. The final touches on the décor had been placed the day previous, but that was only one part of the master plan.

Lady Chichi watched as tables were placed, the staff looking to her for approval. A blank stare meant it was right where she wanted it, but a glare meant they better make adjustments. The moment a table was placed to her liking, chairs were placed next to it, followed by a table cloth, china, flowers, the works.

Seeing as the ball room was slowly forming to her satisfaction, the Lady left the room. A short walk down a corridor led her to another room, this one holding the marriage ceremony. This one was already complete, only requiring some finishing touches. A white rug was being rolled down an aisle towards the other side of the room. A dais had been set up so that all on-lookers would see the moment her son was bound to his…his…her impending daughter-in-law.

The dark-haired woman wasn't all that happy with her son's choice. Deep down, she still thought a girl from the Monkey House would've made the best bride for her wayward child. Someone that could settle down the wanderlust that permeated from him. He had spent enough time traveling; it was time to settle down at home.

Unfortunately, a certain someone had realized how valuable having not one, but two of the Higher Houses under Monkey control. Lady Chichi gritted her teeth. Vegeta had nearly laughed himself silly when he had heard of the unexpected relationship, and then promptly halted any interference. Though his position of Head Stewart excluded him from the activities of the Monkey House, he still had influence, and it was that influence that forced Lady Chichi to stop her persuasion on her son.

At least, her husband felt the same as her. There was friction growing between Goku and Vegeta as of late. As of yet, it hadn't boiled over into something rash, but Lady Chichi knew something would come of it.

That would wait though. There were more important matters at hand.

Approaching one of the pews, the Lady ran her fingers over a thin, white ribbon, rubbing her fingertips back and forth on the cloth. A pink flower was attached to the bow, giving it some color.

If only she could believe its symbolism.

That was another reason not to like the bride. The hussy had been giving it and giving it up often. No amount of white would wash that away. Looking at all of the white décor, perhaps she had gone overboard with it.

At least, the Demon Head had allowed her full control of the wedding. The girl had that much sense at least. Sure, there had been a few confrontations, but Lady Chichi had won all but a few. One of those could be chalked up as a win for her though, considering her son's choice in best man. A smile that was close to being a smirk appeared on her lips at the thought of that.

"You seem pleased with yourself."

Lady Chichi looked over her shoulder, seeing her husband approaching her. "Everything seems to be in order," Lord Goku observed.

"They will be," she replied as she looked once more to the dais. Two servants were placing a pedestal on it with a large bouquet of flowers. From either side, large veils were lowered from the ceiling, drifting downward and to the side until both met at the center, hiding the dais from sight—the finishing touch to the room. Once the audience had been gathered and the wedding parties arrived at their places, the curtains would pull apart to reveal all her hard work. "Why have you not prepared yourself yet?"

"Because I wanted to make sure that you have plenty of time to prepare yourself as well."

"Is it that time already?"

"Nearly."

Lady Chichi sighed. It seemed in her pursuit of perfection this day, she had nearly forgotten about herself. "The rest of the preparations will be carried out as planned," Lord Goku reassured her.

"Very well. I will see myself off." Leaving the room, Lady Chichi couldn't help but feel she was forgetting something.

* * *

It wasn't right; it wasn't fair! How could this have happened?

Evil was prevailing right before his eyes—and people were letting it! It defied all comprehension.

He was the hero of this story!

If anyone was supposed to be married this day, it was Sharpner. Yet, he was still trapped in this small, furry body. That evil witch had seen to that. But, if she thought that would stop him, then she was dead wrong.

After all, he had learned to talk! None of her other animal victims had figured that out! Sharpner couldn't remember how he had either, but it was of little consequence. Only a hero could have done it and he was just such a hero.

Even though it seemed like his Arch Enemy was winning this day, that was not going to be the case. You see, there was this old story in his village of a girl kissing…something, he couldn't remember that part of the story. The important part though, was that whatever it was became a prince and they lived happily ever after together.

Also, there was a lot of sex, though Sharpner wasn't sure why that wasn't considered the happily ever after part.

Anyways, this wedding thing was bringing all sorts of people to it. There would be princesses out the wazoo, so he had his pick of which babe he wanted to make him a prince. She was of course going to be hot—even hotter than the Princess, though that might take a little work. That bodacious babe was supposed to be at the alter and it would be tricky to get her to make him Prince Sharpner. If the opportunity came up, he would definitely try his luck and then get lucky with her.

He could purify the impurity Arch Enemy had done to her.

 _"Just you wait, Arch Enemy,"_ he squeaked. _"You haven't seen the last of me, you hear me? You haven't seen the last of the Great Sharpner!"_

And then he laughed, his laughter filling the room he was held in. The candle that lit the room waved and flickered, creating an ominous feel.

 _"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"_

* * *

Music began to play from the orchestra in two of the corners of the room. The guests walked on the white rug, careful not to step of the flower petals that had been scattered on it at the last minute.

Lady Chichi couldn't help but look over her shoulder from her seat at the front, watching the procession of guests finding their seats. The reactions she saw on their faces pleased her greatly, leaving her wanting to watch more. However, she was a proper lady and she did not stare.

But she would make many glances.

"Everyone is appreciating your work," Lord Goku reassured her, calmly looking ahead at the veil. It was more like a curtain, but the material was thinner, thus not making it an actual curtain. It was only a matter of time before all the guests had been seated, the veil would be drawn apart, and the ceremony would start.

"You really outdid yourself," another voice complimented her from the opposite side. Seated next to the Lady Chichi was Queen Bulma of the Monkey House. Looking splendid in her red dress, the queen was marveling at the décor while simultaneously keeping a firm hand on the little princeling of hers.

"I do pride myself on making special occasions special," the dark-haired woman preened.

"And we are the richer for it."

"Mom, do I really have to wear this thing?" Prince Trunks complained, shifting about in his doublet.

In an instant, gone was the pleasant Monkey Queen and in her place was the domineering mother. "You will behave yourself, do you understand me?" she snapped, her blue eyes blazing.

Immediately, Prince Trunks shrank underneath her gaze. "Yes, mother."

And then the serene queen was back, if only for a moment. It seemed her child was not quite done. "Why do I have to sit her while Goten gets to be up there?"

"Because he has a place in the ceremony," the blue-haired woman replied. "If you had a place in it, you would be there too."

"Why didn't I get a place?"

At Queen Bulma's sharp glare, the boy immediately repeated, "I mean, why did I not get a place?"

"Lady Chichi, would you care to answer this one?" the queen asked sweetly.

"It is a rather simple answer," Lady Chichi replied just as sweet before her voice dropped an octave. "I did not want you in the ceremony. Now, do as you are told, or your mother will be the least of your worries."

Prince Trunks stared at her with wide eyes. "M-mom? She threatened me."

"I know, dear," Queen Bulma said complacently, "and just remember that I can always leave her in charge of your punishment."

There was silence in answer.

Ah, now that was better. Again, Lady Chichi looked over her shoulder, satisfied that most of seating was occupied. It would only be a matter of time before they started.

That moment was upon them when the door was quietly shut and the orchestra changed songs. Gone was the soft, gentle music as it was replaced with a louder, bombastic proclamation. Trumpets announced the beginning of the ceremony, the cue to begin removing the veil.

Slowly, the veil was pulled back, returning to its place at the ceiling. On the dais was the Lady-in-waiting, Princess Erasa and across from her was little Prince Goten. Between them was a minister that was ready to start the ceremony. There was only one problem.

There was no sign of Prince Gohan, or Demon Head Videl.

Instead, right at the center of the dais was a chair, a sign sitting on top of it. Bold letters stated **WENT ON HONEYMOON. BE BACK SOON.**

 _No._

A sinking feeling filled Lady Chichi's gut. This wasn't happening; it couldn't be happening, not again! All of that time and effort and money spent just to have a _sign?!_

 _No…_

It started faintly, but it grew. The sinking feeling was being burned as the flames of rage began to roar within the Monkey Lady.

 _NO!_

A loud, enraged shriek rang out with no sign of every stopping.

* * *

The crisp air was a welcomed feel on Gohan's skin. The warmth from the sun caressed him as he walked side-by-side with his not-so blushing bride.

Well, to be fair, she was smiling; Videl was just being reserved was all.

It had been surprisingly easy to leave the castle. After much thought and consideration, there was no way their guards would let them simply walk out of the castle. So, they had taken the sheets from Gohan's bed and made a rope out of them, climbing down it from the window. With freedom before them, the couple had eloped.

"There is just something about the open road that speaks to me," Gohan said after awhile.

"Is it telling you anything?" Videl replied, looking at him amused.

"Not right now, but I think once we get far enough from Head House, it'll tell us where to go."

"You know, this is the _second_ party of your mother's you've skipped out on."

"I know."

"You don't feel bad about that? Even just a little?"

Gohan shrugged. "That scene just isn't for me. If it were left up to me, we would've gone into a little chapel, made some vows, and be over with it."

"Funny, I was thinking the same thing."

That caused the young man to raise an eyebrow. "Oh? I thought you were into these sorts of things, what with you being a princess and all."

"Like you, Gohan, I was removed from all that at an early age. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly the most girly of princesses."

"Or Queen for that matter."

"Watch it, buster, that's Demon Head. You're the one that's going to be the king."

Gohan raised an arm up to scratch the back of his head. "Is that what I'll be? Weird. I only found out last year that I was a prince, but now I'll be a king."

"You've certainly climbed up the social ladder." Videl was playfully smirking at him before she let out a sigh. "Unfortunately for us, I don't think we're going to be let off the hook for this wedding."

That put a damper on the dark-haired youth's mood. "How come?"

"Like I said, we're special people, which means we're gonna have to do this stupid wedding ceremony eventually."

Well, that was a bummer. Still, they had time. They were on this honeymoon thing royal couples were supposed to take, just without an army of guards following them around. Sooner or later, they would be tracked down and forced to be guarded, or worse, returned to one of the Houses. Still, they hadn't been vagabonds for nothing. There were plenty of places in the country for them to hide and laugh at their persuers.

Unfortunately, Videl was thinking further than that. "Ugh, just think of the party waiting for us when we get back," she grumbled.

"Party?" Gohan repeated before shaking his head. "If I know my mother, it'll be an execution…"

* * *

To Zerolink100: Don't forget, Videl's a princess. In this sort of time period, she wouldn't have a choice in the matter. If her father arranged a marriage for her, she would have had to gone through with it. Since Gohan was in the picture and offered a much better deal, that's the reason the first arrangement was cancelled. It seems crazy, but women were basically bargaining chips at one point, used for politically-convenient unions, or to enrich the father.

Well, folks, this is the end for Dragon Quest Z: Rebirth. It took awhile to finish, but it was fun writing. I wouldn't mind revisiting this little universe in the future at some point. In the meantime, I'd like to thank everyone that read, reviewed, and favorited this story. Ms Videl Son and I really appreciate it.

As for my next story, I'll be returning to my Batman/Justice League series. I'm in the midst of writing up that story, though it won't be posted until the completion of the current story, Three Sides of Fate. For anyone interested, it is currently being posted on AnonymousVoid's account. I do hope to write another DBZ story at some point, but I'm not sure when they may be at this point.

Again, thank you everyone for reading and reviewing!

ShadowMajin

RyRy tested; MaMa approved


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